It's unusual for a child
by Alisha.Kai.Black
Summary: The avatar doesn't exist, Aang has no tattoos, Zuko has no scar, Azula's nice, Toph isn't blind, bending doesn't exist and it's set in the 21st century. Otherwise, it's mostly the same :)


_The avatar doesn't exist, Aang has no tattoos, Zuko has no scar, Azula's nice, Toph isn't blind, bending doesn't exist and it's set in the 21_ _st_ _century. Otherwise, it's mostly the same_

Rushing out of the classroom after the bell rang, stating it was time for lunch, Katara snatched her books from the table and ran out of the classroom, slotting the volumes into her bag as she made her way to the dining room.

"Hey Toph!" she waved to her friend and together, when meeting up they strolled outside.

"Hey 'tara." She answered, her mouth filled with the dumplings she held. "Did you hear about the new kid?"

"What new kid?"

She swallowed. "The new kid from the air monastery."

Katara's eyes widened.

"I know!" Toph exclaimed.

"But students from the air monastery...they never come here. Why would they move, they're Shoalin monks, they study _there_. Wait, girl or a boy? How old is he...or she?"

"Boy. He's actually gonna be in my classes, teachers gave us a heads up so we have to be nice to him." She scoffed. "I say if the softy can't take real school, he shouldn't be here in the first place. He's coming this afternoon."

Katara was lost in her thoughts. "Air monastery huh...I wonder what he's like. The monks over there just keep them in school till their old enough to decide themselves. I wonder what his story is. Do you think he'll have parents?"

Toph shrugged. When making it to their usual table at the back of the lunch gardens, there they were met by Sokka and Suki who were deep in conversation about another one of Sokka's inventions.

"Sokka, come on!" Toph began. "You know that you can't bore your girlfriend with physics and engineering, she just pretends to listen."

Sokka pulled a tongue out at her. "Whatever Toph, my inventions are great."

Katara sat next to her brother and opened a box of noodles, whilst handing Sokka a pair of chopsticks. "What did you come up with this time?"

Suki answered for him as his mouth was suddenly overstuffed with noodles and carrots.

"Octopus shaped satellite that can do everything. I kind of lost what he was talking about when he went on about multiple receiving signals and geometric shapes."

Sokka nodded in approval. "Mmph..."

Katara raised her eyebrows. "Right...are you going to pitch the idea to the Professor? Again?"

He nodded. "Mmm..."

"Doesn't he get fed up with your constant crazy ideas?" Toph questioned him.

He swallowed. "Nope, he loves my ideas."

"Hey guys did you hear about the new kid that's coming from the air monastery today?" Katara stated.

Sokka nodded. "I know right!"

"What?" Suki exclaimed. "Are you serious?"

Right about that time, Mai arrived with Zuko and Azula, and they seemed to be fussing over something.

"No Azula!" Zuko exclaimed.

"Don't be such a wuss!"

"I said before I'm not going to do it, now stop pestering me!"

Toph placed herself on a bench. "What's up?"

"Nothing." Dropping his books onto the table, Zuko sat next to her and folded his arms. Mai sat by him and answered for her.

"Azula's asking him to sneak into Professor Bumi's office to steal the keys for the weapons department."

"Seriously, why?" she turned to Azula who sat by Toph.

"Because Bumi ended up giving me an A instead of an A+, that's why."

They all feigned shock and horror.

"No Azula, an A!" Sokka teased.

"The injustice of it!" Suki went on.

"You guys can tease all you want." She snapped. "But he needs to be reminded that he gave the wrong student the wrong grade."

"Honestly Azula, what did he do?" Katara asked her.

"He dropped my mark because I used a 'varied concoction of weapons that was too large, when it was possible to use an amount that was smaller.' Those were his exacts words and the excuse was pathetic. I told him that if it was reality and I had all of the weapons at my disposal I would use all of them because it keeps the enemy on their toes, and it's less likely they'll win. Can you believe that? And because I gave him that answer he _laughed_ at me and said that what I said was true, but because he was the professor and because the imaginary battlefield was his idea, what he says goes! I wish Piandao had graded me instead."

"It does sound like Bumi." Sokka smiled at her.

"That is not an excuse! I am an A+ student!"

"So what do you plan on doing with the keys?" Katara asked her.

"I was going to feign a burglary and make it so that he was a gambler and so it looked like a loan shark had stolen his prized possession because he couldn't pay off his debts."

Their jaws dropped at that.

"Steal the 1800s cannon? You wouldn't?"

"I would," she then looked at Zuko. "But the only way I can do it is if Zuko grabs the key!"

He growled in frustration. "I already said I'm not doing it!"

"You're the only person who can!" she countered. "The only person who can sneak in without being caught. I would've done it myself," she told the others. "But this is Bumi's office, he's crazy enough to rig it with traps and as much as I hate to admit it, Zuko is better at sneaking and stealing than me."

"Azula, you're reason for doing it isn't good enough okay," her brother countered. "It's just an evil plan for revenge. If you want the A+ go and convince him some other way, I'm not about to steal something from him alright. He's a good teacher. A little crazy, but he's nice enough to give any student the benefit of the doubt if you convince him enough. Remember." He reminded her.

At this she stared at him and sighed. "You're right." She then pondered for a moment. "Guess I could always blackmail him."

"Azula!" they all said at once.

"Just go and talk to him." Sokka insisted. "Like a normal person."

Zuko shook his head. "Whatever," he then jammed earphones in his ears and ignored the others trying to convince her to talk to him.

"It's just like begging him for the grade! It's disgraceful!" Azula protested.

"It's not!" they complained.

Mai rolled her eyes and pulling out one of Zuko's earphones began listening with him.

"Hi guys!" Ty Lee arrived, practically bouncing towards them with a sketch book in her arms.

"Hey Ty Lee." They answered, leaving Azula to solve the problem on her own.

"You just come back from art class?" Suki asked. "Can I see?"

Eager, she settled next to Suki and together they began flipping through the sketches she had done of various contortionists.

"Katara, I still need you to come and take photos of me at my gymnastics class, that okay?" Ty Lee asked.

She nodded. "That's fine."

After lunch, they made their way to their next classes.

"Say hi to the new kid for me!" Ty Lee waved to Toph.

"Uh...okay!" she answered, and began walking towards her Math class after grabbing the books from her locker.

"Hey Toph!"

Turning around she saw Haru coming towards her.

"What's up?"

"Got your History notes. Thanks a lot by the way. I owe you one!" he then turned to go.

"You're welcome!" she called back.

He arrived in the middle of the class, just as she was about to attempt her fifth question on Pythagoras. Looking up she saw he was a happy kid, and actually didn't look nervous for a student who had started a new school, unlike the ones she had seen before. Like she had expected his head was bald. He wore an orange hoodie with dark brown combats and his eyes were the most startling colour of grey. She could see how they glimmered with life all the way at the back of the classroom.

"Class," Professor Kyoshi called for attention. "This is the school's newest student, his name is Aang and as you all know he is from the Air Monastery so he's very far away from home. I want you all to make him feel welcome here. Say hello."

"Hello Aang." The class stated in unison.

Surprisingly, he bowed back. "Hello class." He responded cheerfully and after that, Professor Kyoshi led him to the back of the classroom, where he sat next to Toph at the spare table. He immediately turned to her when the teacher returned to the front once more. He bowed slightly, clasping his hands together. "Hello."

She nodded back. "Just so you know, students don't bow much to each other here."

"Really, why not? It's a sign of respect and formality."

"True, but that's not the way it goes here."

"So how does it go?" he asked, genuinely interest, not embarrassed or offended at all.

"I don't know, guess you'll just have to pick it up. But I'm gonna start by allowing you to share my book I guess."

"Really! Thanks! The head professor...Professor Roku...he said I'd probably have to get my books later, he hasn't even given me a list yet so I couldn't arrive prepared."

"You're lucky, at least you have an excuse for not studying and doing your homework."

"You kidding! I love studying! I can't wait to buy my books."

"Don't let everyone hear you say that, before you know it, people'll be asking you to do their homework for them and that's not a good thing. Remember that. Unless of course you get paid for it and don't get caught."

"What? That's just dishonourable."

"It happens though."

"Huh...I guess this school is very different to what it's like back at the Air Monastery." Aang admitted.

"It is," she nodded. "Welcome to the Earth Academy, I'm Toph Bei Fong by the way."

"Nice to meet you."

She smiled at him.

For her next two classes, Geography and Chemistry, they weren't together, but they were for History where as soon as he saw her, he bounced towards her instantly. He was just as happy as Ty Lee, she thought. It was then she decided to ask him why he had transferred from the air monastery.

"Oh," he blushed, "I don't really want to talk about it." He began scribbling in his book.

"Come on, everyone's dying to know. You have to tell someone."

"I don't have to." He said back, eyes still averted from her.

"I _know_ you want to tell someone. Come on Aang, I'll keep it a secret."

"I bet you won't."

"And how would you know?"

"You have friends too and friends tell each other secrets, then mine won't be kept because it'll be told to your other friends."

She raised an eyebrow. "Huh..." She thought for a moment and decided what he said was actually true. "You're pretty smart for a kid. Besides, how do you know I even have any other close friends?"

"I know you do. Sokka, Katara, Zuko, Suki, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee, you guys are practically like family."

That made her speechless. "How do you know that, you've been here for less than half a day."

"I asked around." He admitted. "But anyway...my reason for transferring isn't really that bad."

"Then why are you making such a big fuss out of it?" she asked him.

"I'm not...it's just...back at the air monastery, we're taught to be Shoalin monks, you know right, but the way they teach is a lot of discipline and respect and rules and I just...I broke a few. The elder monks didn't like it."

After saying that, Toph was genuinely interested. "What did you do?"

"Nothing bad. I played a few pranks on other students, I even...there's this precious statue of the spirit Hei Bai and I coloured it pink with a moustache."

Toph laughed at that.

"And I used to skip lessons sometimes." He shrugged. "The monks said that for punishment I had to be transferred and the only way I can return is after a year, then they'd consider me coming back if I've cleaned up my act. I didn't do anything _really_ bad I guess, but I feel really bad for doing them. I mean, I even miss all my friends."

"So you're only staying here for a year?"

"Yeah."

She thought about his story for a while. "You played pranks on people?" she giggled. "You know Aang, you're gonna fit right in here just fine."

He grinned at her. "Thanks Toph."

"So what else do you know about me and my friends?"

"I know that most of you are from business owning families. Your father owns the Bei Fong foundation and you trade with the other nations. Sokka and Katara used to live at the South Pole but moved when they were younger and their father owns a farm and his own restaurant. He exports his produce. Zuko and Azula's father owns a big cooperation that sells a load of stuff and Mai and Ty Lee are daughters of pretty rich parents. Mai's dads an account I think and Ty Lee's parents are dentists. Suki just has ordinary working parents."

She stared at him. "Wow, you've found out a lot."

"I was just interested, I didn't mean to pry and all..."

She shrugged. "It's okay, why you apologising? You were bound to find out eventually anyway." She smiled to herself, he was perceptive and eager, not to mention clever. He had finished his work in the first fifteen minutes of the lesson.

Once the bell sounded, they collected her things and they walked out together. "I'm gonna introduce you to my friends. C'mon." They ran out together and met the others at the outside of the gate, where they were sat on a wall, waiting for their rides to arrive or just for each other.

"Hey guys, everyone, this is Aang." Toph introduced him to the others who looked down from the wall.

"Hi!" he smiled and waved.

"That's Sokka, Suki and Mai."

They waved to him and Mai gave a slight nod. "Hi there," they said together.

"That's Zuko and Katara."

"Hey."

"And then that's Ty Lee and Azula."

"Hi."

Ty Lee bounded towards him cheerfully after jumping off the wall and bowed. "It's so nice to finally meet you. Here, come and sit by me. I want to know everything! Coming from the air monastery you must have loads of stories! Being brought up as a monk must be so different to what it is here, right?"

Most would be overwhelmed by her bubbliness but Aang just took it naturally. "Absolutely!" he exclaimed. "Back at Air we didn't have all of this technology, we were restricted to the simplest of things. No computers, we just had books and we had no phones or internet."

Sokka gawped. "No way! Why?"

He shrugged. "That's just the way of life there and it isn't bad. When you're brought up a certain way you become used to it."

"Coming here must be pretty overwhelming then." Katara stated.

"You kidding? I love it here! It's so different."

"You joined any sports clubs yet?" Sokka asked him.

"No actually, but I'd love to. Do they have a martial arts club here?"

"All students have to take some kind of martial art or self defence club and a sport." Zuko stated. "Wanna see my time table?"

"Sure!"

"Here look at mine too." Sokka said and after jumping off the wall and back on, the three of them sat together comparing their schedules.

"Wow, you guys are pretty busy. Is that why I have loads of gaps in mine, Roku did say I had to choose a few sports clubs for it to fill out."

"Yeah, the academy insists on all students doing sports otherwise you can't come."

"You both do a lot." He picked up Zuko's and inspected it in detail. "Kung Fu, Baseball, Swimming, Football, Running, Soccer. Weapons training?" he snatched up Sokka's and stared at it. "You do Weapons Training too. What, like guns and stuff?"

"Yeah." They said together and were taken-back when Aang's facade turned from happy to completely appalled.

"What's wrong?" Sokka questioned him.

"But guns are...they're bad. They're just used for _killing_ people. They're only harmful weapons."

"We don't just train with guns. We use swords and staffs and even boomerangs and all sorts. Not just guns." Sokka told him.

"Besides, even if we train for guns it doesn't mean we're actually gonna use them to harm and kill people. It's all part of self-defence." Zuko continued to explain.

Aang still seemed unconvinced. "If you say so but they're still guns. Nothing but suffering from them, world would be better if they didn't exist."

Zuko and Sokka looked at each other and shrugged.

"I guess being brought up as a monk is different to here." Sokka said and at that Aang nodded.

"Yeah. What's football like, I've always wanted to play."

"A bit rough but it's great fun." Sokka said to him. "You gotta be strong for it. Zuko's a great all rounder, good at taking a hit, attacking, he's fast, good dodger. I'm more of a sprinter myself and dodging. If you wanna join you can come tomorrow to try out, I'll tell the coach you're coming."

"That'd be great, thanks. Do any of you guys play?" he asked the girls. Katara answered for him.

"Coach Jeong Jeong doesn't allow boys and girls to play together in football. We have a separate girls team though, Toph's part of it. Sokka tell him the story of when Toph snuck on your side."

"Oh yeah!" the group said together, remembering.

Sokka smiled enthusiastically. "We got Toph to dress up as a boy and so for a day she joined our team, we told Jeong Jeong he was new and he liked being called 'Tough' as a nickname. We told him he just wanted to try it out for a day and she played great, Jeong Jeong really liked her and started asking her to join up completely after she kicked Rian-Chian's butt. He's this tight-assed player in our group, as tall as Ba Sing Se's wall."

Aang laughed. "No way! Didn't he think that maybe she was a bit too short to be a guy." His face straightened out. "I don't mean any offence Toph."

"None taken Baldy." She answered.

"Shortest person on our team is a kid called Ran-Li, he's just as tall as her. Coach probably wouldn't have thought much of it." Zuko said to him.

"Yeah, so when we finished up for the day we went over to the changing rooms and Toph just stood there with her gear on and didn't change. Coach came in and asked her why she wasn't so she shrugged and then he ordered her to get going and so she took off her helmet and everyone saw she was a girl." He began laughing hysterically. "The guys' jaws dropped and some even ran behind the lockers 'cause they were half naked and Coach looked like he was going to blow. Toph just laughed manically and pointed straight at his face and said 'I completely messed with your head!'"

Everyone began giggling at that.

"Azula came up with the plan initially, I adapted it a little." Sokka said and Azula simply shook the statement away.

She smiled. "All of the credit goes to the main player. Right Toph?"

"I expect nothing less." She said to them.

"That must have been pretty funny. How much trouble did you get in?" Aang questioned them.

"Jeong Jeong gave me, Zuko and Toph two week's worth of cleaning-the-field's duty and detention." He sighed. "That part sucked but it was worth it."

Aang continued to look at Sokka's timetable and noticed how he had a lot of engineering type subjects.

"Yeah, I'm planning on being one."

"You're not gonna take over your dad's business?"

"How did you know about that?"

Aang shrugged. "I just picked it up around school."

"Well...dad says I don't have to."

He turned to Zuko. "But you have to inherit your dad's?"

Zuko's jaw dropped. "I...well..."

"Sorry." Aang apologised at once. "You don't have to answer that."

"Come on Zuko," Azula said, glancing at her nails. "You don't have to hide it, the whole school knows you're going to inherit Ozai enterprises one day. Why keep it secret?"

"I'm not!" he complained and quietened down quickly. "I'm not keeping it secret. I am going to." He said to the bald monk and at that Aang dropped the subject.

"Oh...alright."

"Who do you stay with?"

Looking towards Mai, who asked the question, Aang asked her what she meant.

"Back home, where you live, do you have any parents?"

"No, I don't actually. No monks do. Most are orphans or their parents sent them to the monastery to be brought up for various reasons. I never knew my parents. I'm here with a guardian. Her named is Yang Chen. She's actually a teacher here."

"Professor Yang Chen?" they said together.

"Yeah. She teaches Literature and History."

"Wow, and we didn't even know. She never even said anything." Ty Lee said. She then glanced at the road. "My ride's here," bouncing off the wall she waved goodbye to everyone. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. It was great talking to you Aang! I'll see you tomorrow too!"

They waved back.

"Bye Ty Lee!" Aang waved back enthusiastically.

"You decided what sports to take up yet?" Zuko questioned him.

"What does Ty Lee take? Does she do art as well? I noticed her sketchbook."

"Yeah." Zuko answered.

"Ty Lee's a gymnast and a contortionist as well." Azula continued.

"I'd love to do gymnastics!" he said. "That'll be one on my list."

The others glanced at each other.

"It might be different to how I train back home. And I think I'll do football as well, I'll try it out tomorrow though. Definitely have to continue with Kung Fu, and I can take up Running. Hey Toph what other things do you do?"

"Uh...wrestling, but I can't imagine you doing that. I don't actually do Kung Fu but I also take up Hockey and Ice Hockey as well as Football."

"What about you Katara?"

"I do Kung Fu, Swimming and Soccer, I even do winter sports. You know, ice skating, snowboarding and stuff. Sokka does too, 'cause we're from the south pole and all."

"Yeah." Sokka joined in. "Zuko and I also skate and ride bikes."

Aang nodded and jotted notes down at the side of his table. "Suki what do you have?"

"Weapons training, Kung Fu, Soccer, Swimming, I'm even part of the Cheerleading squad."

"Mai?"

"Weapons and Kung Fu. I don't play games much and I definitely am not part of that pom-pom tossing squad."

"It's not all bad. You just exaggerate." Suki said to her.

"What about you Azula?"

They all groaned at that.

"Azula does everything." Katara told him.

"That's not true." She retorted. "I just do a few more than you guys."

Aang looked at her. "Why? How many do you do?"

Instead of answering herself, the others answered for her one by one.

"Kung Fu."

"Weapons."

"Swimming."

"Soccer."

"Gymnastics."

"Even joined the Chess Club."

"Cheerleading. Can you believe that?"

"Winter sports."

"And on the odd occasion, Volleyball."

"She does a lot of competitions too. Part of the decathlon."

She simply smiled. "I would love to tell you more but our car is here." Jumping off the wall, Zuko followed her after pecking Mai on the cheek and they said goodbye. Toph soon left because her car arrived and Suki's bus arrived a moment later.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye."

It was suddenly the three of them left.

"Do you have to wait here for Yang Chen?" Katara asked Aang.

"Yeah, she said she wouldn't be long."

"We'll wait with you." Sokka said to him.

"Thanks guys, but won't your car be arriving soon?"

"Nah, we walk it home. It's not far." Sokka explained to him.

"Really? You mean all the other rich kids get picked up with fancy black cars, you guys just walk?"

"Our dad let's us and we want to."

"You mean the others aren't allowed to? They have to get picked up?"

Katara shrugged. "They're parents are just overprotective."

They sat silently for a few moments while Aang attempted to choose what subjects to take.

"So..." Sokka started. "You seriously don't have a phone?"

When Suki arrived home, she yelled out her hellos to her parents who answered back from the living room.

"How was school?" her father asked.

"Good." She stated, grabbing an apple and settling down on the couch. "How was work?"

"Same as usual."

She nodded, realising that working at a factory was not all exciting. The most exciting news would be a machine broke down or inspectors had come to visit.

"Your mothers made stew for dinner."

"Cool." Getting up she grabbed her bag and rushed to her room. "Gonna go and get changed."

"Be quick, remember you have to work today!"

"I know!"

Opening the door of her room, she rummaged through the wardrobe and grabbed out her uniform, changing out of her skinny jeans and favourite green T-shirt which was of her favourite band. She slipped into the dress and apron she had to wear for the cafe she worked at and her phone buzzed. It was Katara.

 _-U goin 2 wrk?_

Suki answered swiftly.

 _-Ye_

 _-Wot did u thnk bout Aang?_

 _-He was nyc_

 _-Not wot u thought a mnk wud b lyk?_

 _-Nah, thought he'd b mor lyk an outsydr but he fit ryt in_

 _-I no! Anyway, wont keep u waitn, hav fun at wrk_

 _-Thnks x_

Tying her hair back, she grabbed her purse and jacket and rushed out the room.

The next day, when Sokka had spotted Aang in the school grounds just before they entered school, he ran towards him. "Hey Aang!"

The young monk turned around and smiled when seeing who it was. "Hey Sokka! I was just on my way to class registration."

"I know, but before you go, here. I decided you need a phone so..." he rummaged through his bag and brought out something packaged in plastic. "I got you one."

Aang held out his hand and smiled gleefully. "Wow Sokka, you didn't need to."

"Are you kidding, I had to. Having a phone is a big part of a teenagers life and besides, I'm gonna teach you everything I know! Trust me kid, you need it if you want to survive out here and I have millions of gadgets lying around at home, this was just one of them."

Aang suddenly pulled Sokka into a brief hug. "Thanks Sokka, this means a lot to me. I owe you one, big time."

"Aww...it was nothing. Let me show you how to use it."

They walked towards the building together and when they had to go their separate ways in the corridor, Aang had already learnt how to phone and text perfectly.

"Remember you got tryouts for football this lunch. Coach won't be happy if you miss it so be there. He had to call everyone to meet up on short notice."

"I wouldn't miss it for anything." Aang smiled at him. All through the day he sat fidgeting, waiting for practice. His morning lessons seemed excruciatingly slow and he couldn't wait any longer when the bell finally sounded. He bounded out of the IT classroom and sprinted all the way to the sports centre, where he found the boys locker room was empty. The coach was the only one present.

"Coach Jeong Jeong." Aang bowed at the doorway and looking up, the coach saw who it was and stood up.

"You must be Aang. I hope you're ready." Walking towards him he frowned, the man didn't seem like a smiler. "A little too small and skinny to be a football player. Look like you can't take a few hits."

Aang simply smiled. "I'll try my best."

He grunted and turned back. "You'll give more than 100% or you're not on my team, that I'll make sure of. Here, I'll show you to the kit you're gonna have to wear. It's most definitely too big for you but if you end up on the team, you'll buy your own."

Aang grinned and leapt forwards.

Sokka and a few other boys arrived five minutes later and Aang had already changed.

"Aang? Glad you made it on time, how's Coach been?"

"Doesn't seem like a happy man." He answered.

"He isn't. The gear looks a bit big for you."

"It is. But I can't wait! What's training like?"

Sokka began dressing into his own kit, pulling off his sleeveless, blue shirt and converse shoes, tossing them into the locker. "You know..." He answered. "Hard to be honest, but it's fun. You'll see I guess. Coach'll probably make you do tackle exercises and dodging and running and...you'll just have to see."

"Cool." He looked around and sat down on one of the benches. "Zuko not coming?"

"Nah, he's got extra science classes today. But that's Jet over there and that's Haru and Longshot."

"Hi!" Aang waved.

"Hey." Jet answered, pulling on his shirt.

Haru was the only one who waved back. "How's it going?"

Longshot simply nodded.

Sokka smiled. "Longshot doesn't talk much, Haru's a great friend if you need help with something and Jet's a guy that likes to keep his image."

"Oh..." Aang smiled widely. "Like one of those cool guys in high school, those older cool kids that all the girls want to go out with and the others boys follow around."

Sokka laughed. "Yep, that pretty much sums Jet up."

"Hey!" he shouted at them. "That's not me, there's more to me than that!"

"Whatever Jet!" Sokka yelled back and the other boys snickered.

"I heard he's had loads of girlfriends throughout the year," Aang told Sokka, "and he wants to go out with your sister."

"Yeah he does, but when he asked Katara, he ended up getting a bowl of water thrown onto him instead." He laughed to himself. "My sister deserves better than him and she has pretty high expectations." He smiled proudly.

They heard Jet scoff and curse.

Aang smiled. "You and Katara close?"

Sokka nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

"I heard that you don't live with your mom."

He looked at Aang and nodded again. "We don't. She passed away a long time ago. We were pretty young."

"I'm sorry. Must have been pretty hard losing your mother." He thought for a moment. "Not that I know what it's like to lose parents but...I don't know. I guess you feel like you've lost something and you miss them all the time."

Sokka looked at him. It seemed like he was asking what it was like to have parents, as if he was trying to understand. "It was, we still do miss her but you have to move on. Katara misses her the most...and dad." He paused for a moment. "Do you ever wish you had parents?"

"I...I don't know. I've been wondering about it more lately because you know, everyone here is always talking about their mom or their dad and I just began wondering...back at the monastery, no one has parents and it was normal but coming here, everything seems different. At the end of the day, everyone goes home. Over there, we just go back to our rooms."

Sokka understood. "Well...don't go asking Katara about our mom." He warned the young monk.

"Why not?"

Wow, Sokka thought, he was really inquisitive and he didn't hold back. "It upsets her." He breathed out and decided to tell him. "Our mother died when Katara was nine, they were in the car together and they'd crashed into a truck over some ice. She survived but mom didn't."

"Right boys! On the pitch! Now!"

They nodded at the instruction and once ready, stood up. Sokka looked back at the smaller boy. "And Aang?"

"Yeah?"

"If you want to ask questions, just remember to be careful and that you can upset people if

you pry too much. A lot of students here would rather keep things secret."

Aang realised he had been rude and reddened. "Oh...I'm sorry. I didn't want to-

"It's okay, I don't mind telling you. But remember others might not want to." He smiled at him. "Now let's go play."

Aang grinned back at him, readied himself and jogged out of the locker room and out onto the field with the others.

"How did Aang do at tryouts?" Toph questioned Sokka.

He grabbed his carton of milk. "Pretty good. He's faster than most of the guys on the team for his size."

She nodded. It was lunch and they were in the gardens. The others had arrived although Aang had gone to search out teachers so that he could tryout for optional classes and sports.

"He's a good runner, so he'll be great for touchdowns and everything and if anything, he can dodge. Left, right, whatever, he spins and he's off. You hardly see him he's so fast. He can stay behind a person and they'll never know that he's behind you no matter how much you turn. In fact he's too good at dodging."

"What do you mean?" Zuko asked him, grabbing a carrot with his chopsticks.

"He's not great at taking a hit." Sokka explained.

"What?" most of the group said together.

"He can, but he's not great. He hates it. Three times out of five, he's more likely to dodge it. Should've seen coach's face he got so frustrated with Aang ducking and everything. Aang said it was unnatural to him, back at the monastery he would be taught to avoid a hit. He's okay at hitting other people, but he doesn't want to hurt them."

"If he's like that..." Toph started. "He needs to snap out of it. This is football! He can't play without getting hit."

"I know. That's what coach said. He's still got a place on the team though, said that he'll probably snap out of it if he keeps at it in practise."

"Got a position yet?"

"Nah...not quite. Coach said the only reason he's staying is because he's fast. Runner and a dodger, has to learn to be tough. But in time he'll become a great asset to the team I'm sure of it, Aang's a fast learner."

"Fast learner huh...?" Azula nudged Zuko. "Better watch out Zuzu, he'll probably be after quarterback soon enough."

"Whatever Azula."

"We sleeping over at ours tonight?" Katara asked them.

"Yeah." They answered.

"You better have all of your stuff." Sokka told them. "I am not lending you a shirt again Ty Lee, last time my dad saw you in my shirt he had a few questions for me. Especially since you came out of my room in the morning! What were you doing in there anyway?"

She blushed. "I'm sorry Sokka! You know I sleepwalk. I must've ended up walking there or something in the middle of the night."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I bet you walked into there on purpose just to get me in trouble."

"That does sound like Ty Lee." Mai stated sarcastically and the others laughed.

"Hey! That's not me! It's not! I wouldn't want to get Sokka into trouble!"

"Ty Lee," Azula told her. "They're joking."

It took her a moment. "Oh," and she began laughing with them.

"Hey guys!"

"Hey Aang." They responded when turning to see who it was.

"Wanna come over to Yang Chen's classroom? She's left a whole load of food there and stuff after her class, something to do with the history of food or something and she said I could invite anyone over to get rid of it. As long as you don't disrupt or anything. Wanna come?"

"You even have to ask. 'Course we're coming!" Sokka grabbed up his, Katara's and Suki's things, ushering them up and away.

"Sokka!" Azula said. "Relax."

"Free food!" he told them.

Swinging on their bags, Zuko began walking with the chopsticks in his mouth, food still in hand, Katara with the book and box of noodles in her arms, and Mai was still chewing on her chicken.

"Cool it." Toph told him.

"Great!" Aang smiled and walked with them to the classroom.

"Hey Aang what classes did you get into?" Katara asked him and pulling out his timetable, he walked by her side and showed her, grabbing her bag to hold as her hands were full.

It was night and they had filled Sokka and Katara's living room floor with mattresses. They had tried girls and boys sleeping in separate bedrooms before, but it had been uneven. Too many girls in one bedroom whilst only two boys shared the other room. Even when separated, they couldn't talk as much when they wanted to and so it had been Toph's idea to just share the living room. It had been quite a shock when Hakoda had woken up in the morning to find the room had been filled with sleeping children and the rest of the furniture had been piled outside in the corridor.

"You got enough popcorn to last the night?" Hakoda asked them, walking into the invaded living room. "And sweets?"

"Yeah dad, thanks." Katara pecked him on the cheek when taking the homemade candy floss from him.

"Hi there Mai," he said to her, "your parents alright? I haven't seen them in a long while."

She nodded at him whilst sorting out her pillows. "They're fine sir, just busy with work at the moment. They have some new projects and Tom-Tom's been keeping them busy."

"Young children can be pests." He nodded.

At this Katara and Sokka complained.

"Hey!"

"We weren't that bad."

"I wasn't, but you were Katara."

At this, Katara leapt at her brother and they began wrestling.

"Break it up or I'm sending you all home." Hakoda warned them and pulling apart, they apologised.

"Sorry dad."

He left then, leaving them to form a circle, eating the sweets and popcorn.

"Man," Toph mumbled through a mouthful, "you guys have the best dad in the world."

Katara frowned at her. "Shouldn't say that Toph, your dad does love you."

"He does," she agreed, "just wish he'd show it a bit more."

"I don't want to hear any of you complaining," Azula told them. "If anyone does get to complain its Zuko and I."

"Right," Zuko agreed and at this the others nodded.

"Is your Uncle gonna come over any time soon?" Sokka asked them. "And Lu Ten?"

Azula shrugged, grabbing a book whilst grabbing a handful of popcorn. "We got an email saying they'd probably be coming in about two weeks."

"Wow really, they haven't been in the earth kingdom for what...?" Katara said.

"A whole year." Zuko answered for them. "Thank the spirits, I've been getting sick of father and I think I'm gonna explode soon."

"How would Fuddy Duddy Uncle help anyway?" Azula questioned him. "From what I remember, he's just a tea loving goon."

"He's not 'Zula and you know it. He's father's brother so he can get away with not following him, which means we get away with things like actually having a sleepover without having to come up with master plans before hand, and a million lies to his face."

"I'm fine with lying Zuko, it's just you that gets all uncomfortable."

"That's true," Mai said to him. "For a person that's great at being stealthy and all, you're not so great at lying."

He blushed at this. "I...I don't know what to say."

The others giggled.

"Stop making fun of him." Suki told the others.

"He allows it to happen."Katara said.

"I hate you guys." Zuko rolled his eyes and flicked a seed at Sokka who was laughing too much for his liking. "I can't wait till Lu Ten comes over. Isn't he in his last year of studying law?"

Katara smiled "Lu Ten's almost done? Wait, why is he coming, shouldn't he be studying back at Huo University?"

"To be honest, Lu Ten's not sure if he's coming over yet, hasn't decided 'cause he is busy and all." Azula told her.

"Hope he does come," Zuko pondered for a while. "Then again, it's most likely he won't." He sighed.

"Hey Sokka what're you doing?" Ty Lee asked him.

"Sending Aang music."

"What!" she stood up and squished between him and Suki. "You have the worst taste in songs, if anyone should send him music it's me. Mai pass me my phone."

Throwing it to her, Sokka and Ty Lee began fiddling with their phones and sending him the tracks they thought he'd like best.

"This would be easier if I could Bluetooth it." Sokka said.

The others pulled out their phones and began copying off the others.

"Do you think Aang'd like rock and indie?" Zuko asked the others.

"From what I've gathered about Aang is he would like anything as long as it's new." Azula told him whilst sending a bunch of classical tracks.

The others agreed.

"Hey guys, we playing truth or dare tonight or what?" Toph looked up from her phone.

"Umm..." Sokka decided without looking up from his phone. "Guess we could...but we can't annoy dad, he's tired today."

"Yeah," Katara agreed. "He was up all night yesterday."

Toph clicked cancel on her phone once she'd finished and grabbed the pillow. "Alright I'm throwing it!"

"Hey, not yet!"

"Too late!" she yelled at them. "Three...two...one...!"

They threw away their phones hastily and jumped up, running away to dodge the sudden throw.

Toph threw it directly at Ty Lee who dodged it just in time and consequently, Toph grabbed another pillow and aimed it at someone else. But because they were all trained in fighting it took a long time before someone was caught and that person ended up being Mai.

"Great." She muttered, grabbing the pillow and throwing it at Sokka who started laughing. "What is it?" she turned to Toph who was smiling manically.

"Jump into Gran-Gran and Pakku's room with a white sheet over yourself."

"What?"

"And you have to make ghost noises."

" _What?_ "

"Chicken!" Toph threw the word at her and the rest joined in.

"Chicken Mai!"

"Wuss!"

"Pussy!"

"Alright!" she yelled. "Whatever. I'll do it."

Katara provided her with the sheet and Suki drew on the face. Sokka meanwhile hid a camera to record the whole thing without Mai knowing.

Waking up at sunrise, Hakoda rose out of his bed, freshened up, changed and made it downstairs to the front door where his mail had been posted outside in the mailbox already. He then strolled through the large corridor and checked the dining room had been untouched by the kids. He had heard the sudden commotion from his mothers and her husband's room and smiled, wondering what crazy plan they had come up with. Opening up the living room's door, he smiled when seeing what it was like inside.

It was a mess of course, but they would clean it up like always after. Empty dishes and packets in one corner, pillows were abandoned and thrown anywhere and a couple of the mattresses had been abandoned in the night. They were all sleeping in the oddest of places. Sokka had somehow been tangled up in Toph's blanket and his feet were on Katara's mattress as he slept on his side, breathing peacefully. Katara was flat on her stomach, blankets bunched up beneath her feet and long hair spread across the pillow and mattress. Suki's head had somehow used his daughter's hair as a pillow, one hand tangled up in the brown mess while her feet were on Mai's bed. Mai herself had an arm around Azula who seemed to be peaceful enough, hugging her pillow tight. She twitched in her sleep when Mai shuffled forward a little, rubbing her nose with her palm as if it was itchy. Toph seemed to have stolen Zuko's blanket, sleeping spread eagle and Zuko seemed to have stolen Ty Lee's blanket, lying so deeply within it the only thing visible was his ruffled hair above the sheets. Ty Lee was simply lying on her side, palms under her chin.

Hakoda smiled and snapped a secret picture on his phone he would mortify with them later. He almost felt bad for disturbing the peaceful bundle.

"Kids! It's six! Wake up!"

Azula and Zuko were the first to jump and jolt awake.

Zuko sat up, throwing the covers off himself and rubbed his eyes. "What...?"

"Six 'o' clock. Got to get ready for school remember."

Azula stood up and shook herself awake, kicking Mai to wake up.

"...'Zula..." Mai complained in response. "Get lost..."

Ty Lee shot up all of a sudden and grabbed her bag, as if she had never been asleep. "I call the downstairs bathroom!"

Once she said that, the whole room sprang awake and everyone rushed for their bags, and scrambled over each other to get to the bathroom first.

"I take Katara's!" Suki yelled.

"What! You can't take that it's mine!"

"Well I'm taking Sokka's!" Zuko ran.

"Hey you can't!"

"Catch me first!"

"Whatever Zuko! I'm taking the second floor one!"

Toph chased after him. "You can't! You have to let me go first unless you want me to die from your shit smell in the morning!"

"You can smell my shit now Toph for losing!"

"Sokka, Toph, language!" Hakoda shouted at them.

"Sorry dad!"

"Sorry Mr Hakoda!"

Shaking his head, he smiled at how they dashed to and fro.

"Get off my leg!" he avoided tripping over Suki who had grabbed Katara's legs. Suki then leapt over her and rushed to the large staircase, taking two steps at a time.

"I'm gonna kill you Suki!" Katara yelled at her, scrambling onto her feet. "I'm gonna knock off your head when you-

"Katara." Hakoda warned his daughter and she abandoned the rest of her threat which no doubt would have been followed by a string of carefully chosen curses.

"Sorry dad." She apologised and continued to chase her. But Suki had already vanished.

Making his way to the kitchen, he threw the letters onto the table and began pulling out ingredients from the shelves for breakfast. He thought of how over the years, Katara and Sokka's friends had somehow been pulled into their family.

Toph had been the first when they arrived from the South Pole. Knowing no one, she had helped them know practically everyone. The first time Hakoda had met her, he had been surprised she knew something about every house for miles around. Knew their names and their background and even added in the opinion of whether they were trustworthy people or not. He admitted to himself that if Toph had not been around, he wouldn't have made some of the right business decisions which were crucial to his success. He had met her parents a few months later, she had invited him personally and remembered how detached they seemed to be with their daughter. In fact, Hakoda discovered they knew nothing of her wrestling whereas he did. He had asked her about it later.

"Yeah," she answered. "They don't. To be honest they don't agree with me taking it up because I'm a girl and all. They don't understand. I'd appreciate it if you'd keep it a secret."

He had kept his promise and since then, she had practically been part of the family. Most likely to be at his house than her own, constantly sleeping over in Katara's room. She was the younger sister his daughter never had. Once, Toph had visited Kya's memorial shrine they kept at the bottom of the orchard, to lay down a bunch of flowers and light a stick of incense. Hakoda had been stunned but happy for her thoughtfulness.

Suki had come next. Yue had been Sokka's first girlfriend in his first year. A pretty girl with dark skin and white hair and she had been a nice person. Hakoda had been quite stunned to find out she had come from the North Pole, but she left a few months after, back to her home due to the fact her grandmother had become ill. Hakoda remembered how moody Sokka had become for the next few weeks although Suki had come into his life and made him happy again. She was a clever girl, not from the richest of backgrounds he had become used to but she was a very hard worker. A warrior as well when he had seen her train. She and Toph got along just fine and Katara had welcomed her easily. The three girls were the best of friends. Her parents were also kind people, always part of some charitable, voluntary work which helped people in need. He would often see them and Suki at the hospital, helping.

Mai and Ty Lee had come together from the Fire Nation, simply because their parents had been offered jobs in the Earth Kingdom which were higher paid. Ty Lee had obviously been happy and bubbly, willing to share any piece of information, showing off with what she could do and willing to help Hakoda just to say thank you for when she would visit his home. She loved walking through his orchard and learning how to farm animals and had said that maybe, one day she wanted to become a vet if she was not able to become a performer. He understood she had nine sisters and she had even shared with him the fact she hated being so invisible because they were always the same. It had been a summer's day and he was teaching her how to milk a cow while Katara and Sokka were doing their chores, and she just burst out into tears when he had asked why she wanted to study contortionism. She had rambled on about how all of her sisters were a match-set and she was afraid of being part of it so she pursued a different path. Just to comfort her, Hakoda told her she should be proud of who she is and said he admired how she chose to be different. He also told her that if she wanted to be noticed, she would have to point it out to her mother and father and bring them to one of her demonstrations and she had done just that. Since then she had been extremely grateful for his advice and told him that he was the Uncle she never had.

Mai was Ty Lee's best friend. At first Hakoda had simply seen Mai as a quiet, moody girl that seemed to be interesting in nothing. But Sokka, Katara, Toph and Ty Lee began telling him how her parents weren't exactly the most interested people when it came to their daughter. They were more concerned about their own careers and lives and at first, Hakoda had not believed them. But then Mai's father had knocked on his door and they talked. He had wanted to become Hakoda's personal accountant and Hakoda had truthfully said he did not need one, he already had an accountant and was on top of his finances. Mai's father had accepted that but when Hakoda asked about Mai and how she was as a child he had answered,

"...as any daughter should be. I hope to get her married when she is eighteen to a boy we have chosen for quite a few years now. He is the son of a successful father who owns a car manufacturing business. I am sure you understand, with _your_ daughter and all." He had said it coldly, as if she was a robot, a _thing_ and not his daughter. He had said it without pride and love.

Hakoda had stared, swallowed, nodded and smiled painfully. The man didn't understand children at all. But he had carried on.

"And your son? I assume he is to inherit your business. I am sure you are training him to become what you are."

Hakoda stared and put down his drink. "My dream of owning a food exporting business and a restaurant is my dream, I do not expect my children to follow what my ambitions are when they are perfectly fine to have their own. They will follow their own dream."

Once he had said that, he had told Mai's father he would like to retire for the night and politely told him to leave. Once he had left, he knocked on Katara's door and found Sokka was there, helping her with her Physics homework.

"What's wrong dad?" Katara asked him.

"Nothing." He paused. "I just met Mai's father."

She understood instantly. "I know, he's a prick right."

"Katara." Hakoda scolded her.

She simply shrugged. "What? I'm just telling the truth, he is."

Sokka smiled at him. "Come on dad, admit it."

Hakoda thought for a moment and nodded. "He's a prick."

His kids had laughed at that.

"Wait until you meet her mother." Katara said to him.

Sokka agreed. "No opinion of her own what-so-ever. Follows her husband like a robot."

After that, Hakoda had told them to invite Mai over for dinner and it took him a few months, but Hakoda had finally made her laugh and since then, she had loosened a little bit and she fit in with the others.

Azula and Zuko had come next and the both of them were the strangest kids he had ever met. Sokka had told them they were both extremely clever, Azula more so than Zuko even though she was younger than her brother and they came from the Fire nation. They were both lethal in Kung Fu and Weapons training and exceptional in the other sports they had taken up which was a lot. For the first few months they had been friends with no one, hung out with no one, never seen outside school apart from when they were coming to and from their mansion of a house. They would be picked up by a black Hummer and that was about it. The only reason they had become friends was because Sokka and Zuko had been teamed up for a Biology project and they had gone on a field trip with a few other students. All through the three days they had been partnered up, Sokka had been texting Katara and the others of how much of an annoying hot-head he was. How he wouldn't talk and if Sokka ever said anything to him, he would find it offensive and throw something back at him. The three days had been excruciating for him and when it was time to go home, he had sent a text to Hakoda that showed a face of crying relief and a million 'yes's' and prayers thanking the spirits. However, the train they had gone on had broken down in the middle of nowhere where they had no signal to contact anyone for the whole night so they had to sleep the night in a train. When morning arrived, they had woken up to find they had arrived back home at the train station and when Sokka and Zuko had walked out, a car had been waiting for Zuko and out stepped his father.

Sokka had seen Zuko freeze instantly and Sokka had sworn his father looked like he was about to murder his own son. As soon as he had seen his father, Zuko began apologising.

"I'm sorry father, the train broke down in the night and I had no way of contacting you."

"Get in the car." He said coldly.

"No one was able to contact anyone and everyone had fallen asleep in the night. I didn't know we arrived until now. I'm sorry for not telling you."

"Get in the car Zuko."

"I apologise if I worried you."

"Get in the car."

Zuko stared at the ground and walked forward, slowly. His father, who Sokka had said had the most evil and intimidating presence, watched his son as he walked forward and only moved when Zuko had actually sat into the car and shut the door. The car had skidded away swiftly and Sokka had been left standing, completely stunned. Zuko's father had totally ignored him, as if Sokka was never even standing there but Zuko had glanced back once, and Sokka said he looked absolutely terrified. When Hakoda heard this story, he was immediately worried. Ozai didn't sound like a pleasant person.

"How was Zuko the next day?" Hakoda had asked Sokka.

"Didn't come the next day."

"What?"

"Didn't come, but his sister Azula did. No one asked her anything though, she never talks to anyone other than the teachers and a lot of people are kinda scared of her for some reason."

Zuko had not arrived the next day either but on the third, he had sat next to Sokka and apologised for his behaviour on the trip they had been on together.

"What?" Sokka asked, astounded.

He exhaled. "I'm sorry for they way I acted...on the biology trip. I didn't mean to be..."

"Such a dick?" Sokka suggested.

Zuko glared at him although Sokka was unaffected by his anger, he had endured three days and three nights of it anyway.

But Zuko hadn't said much about it. "Yeah..." he muttered. "I'm just not used to talking to people..." he admitted.

"What?"

"I...whatever...it doesn't matter."

"No seriously Zuko, what is it?"

"Nothing."

"Your dad looked like he was about to murder you."

"What!" Zuko snapped at him. "He wouldn't do that!"

"Well of course he wouldn't, he's your dad!"

He was silent after that. "Well yeah...I know...he wouldn't..."

After hearing that, Sokka seemed to understand that Zuko and Azula didn't have the nicest of fathers. "Wow, he's that much of a jerk."

It had taken a couple of weeks, but Sokka had found out that Azula and Zuko had lost their mother, Ursa, back at the Fire Nation when he had been ten and Azula nine. He had been further stunned to find that she had been mentally ill, and had spent a lot of time under care and management because she was prone to hysterical fits and had attacked Zuko and Azula when they had been children extremely violently. Once she had tried to suffocate Zuko with a pillow in his sleep and once she had attempted to drown Azula in the bath tub. Sokka had been speechless through the revelation.

"But she wasn't evil!" Zuko insisted. "She was a great mother, she loved us. She was the nicest person in the world. She taught us to be good people, she would feed the ducks in the pond and hold birds when they flew near her and she would stroke and sing to them like...she was a great mother. Was there when I was upset...she was just...she was just ill, it wasn't her fault..."

After revealing that, it had had taken Sokka another few days to get Zuko to just say hello to him everyday, he had been that embarrassed. Naturally, Sokka had told Zuko the story of their mother and he found out that later on, when he had been eleven, Zuko's mother had committed suicide. Slit her wrists in the bathtub and found by their father. Ozai had never been the same since.

They moved from the fire nation for more than the transference and improvements of his business, it was to start anew.

Zuko's past had left Hakoda speechless when his son told him. From then on, Zuko had introduced Azula to Sokka and slowly, the both of them became friends with the others.

Hakoda remembered the first sleepover with all of them, and it had been quite complicated. Zuko and Azula had come up with a lie to their father about how for one night they had an over night History trip and the process had included fake letters from the school, a contribution from all of them and an oath of secrecy from Hakoda to not mention it to anyone. It had even included deceiving the other parents just in case they mentioned anything. It had been strange and Hakoda constantly wondered whether he was doing the right thing as a parent, after all, he was not Azula and Zuko's father.

Hakoda shook his head at the memories and began to slice up fruit. They were all such unusual children.

"Morning."

He turned around and saw Azula step into the kitchen. She was completely dressed and her hair was dry and as perfect as usual. "Morning Azula. Were you one of the first to race to the shower?"

She nodded and laughed. "I bet Suki to Katara's, they were too busy fighting each other."

He laughed.

"Need any help?" she offered.

He nodded. "Can you continue slicing the fruit?"

She nodded and set to work whilst he brought out the pan for the pancakes, setting on the cooker. Ty Lee walked in next, a towel wrapped around her wet hair as she set the table. Soon enough, everyone arrived, one by one, freshened up and helping out in the kitchen so that quickly, they were sat eating their breakfast, prepared for the day.

The table was filled with stacks of pancakes, bottles of syrup, bowls of fresh fruit and glasses of orange juice. Cream and chocolate sauce were also present as was a jug of milk, which had to be filled a second time when Sokka and Zuko grabbed for it at the same time. Gran-Gran and Pakku walked in when they were in the middle of eating.

"Morning everyone." Pakku said.

"Morning."

"Hi Grandad."

"Morning Gran-Gran."

Katara stood up while her grand-parents sat down, grabbing them a plate.

"Thank you Katara." Gran-Gran said to her granddaughter. "How was your night?"

"Good thank you." They said together.

Pakku then spotted Sokka reading a book, scribbling down a few notes. "Sokka, don't tell me you've left your homework till last minute."

He shrugged. "What? I'm entitled to a few slip ups and last minutes in the year."

Pakku shook his head and began his breakfast.

"Hurry up, you've got minutes left." Hakoda warn them. "Got everything ready? Azula, Zuko, you texted your father?"

They nodded.

"Yeah, he said he'd just pick us up as normal after school." Zuko told him.

"Toph, what're you doing?" Hakoda questioned the younger friend.

"Taking some of your rice cakes for lunch, if you don't mind."

"It's alright, just don't take the whole lot like last time."

She snorted whilst laughing. "Alright."

Mai stood up to collect her bag once she placed her dishes in the washer and the others followed her quickly, after jamming the rest of their breakfast into their mouths, attempting to gulp down the last of their juice or milk. Soon enough, they had seconds to go.

"Come on, out of the house!"

"Alright dad, chill!" Sokka rushed passed him and bounded out of the house. Half of them were already outside.

"Mai! Come on!"

"I'm coming!" she answered coolly and walked leisurely out of the house.

Zuko poked his head into the corridor and called out to Suki, who was still in the kitchen. "What're you doing?"

"I've lost my phone!"

"What!" he shook his head, flicked open his own and called her mobile.

"Found it!" she yelled when hearing her ring tone and then dashed out of the house. "Thanks Mr Hakoda! See you later!"

"Bye Suki. Have a good day at school."

She nodded and turned to her friend. "Thanks Zuko." He shook his head at her and all eight of them walked down the driveway together, talking and laughing. Hakoda smiled when they had vanished from sight and he turned to the kitchen, where he had left his letters.

"Hakoda, Pakku and I are leaving for the North Pole now."

He nodded. "Alright Ma, make sure you're both safe."

She nodded and kissed her son on the forehead whilst Pakku shook his hand. They had said goodbye to the children before.

"And make sure you keep those kids of yours on a leash. Last night was not something to laugh about. You should teach them some manners and respect to their elders." Pakku scolded his son-in-law.

Hakoda simply laughed.

"I thought I had a heart-attack from the shock Hakoda, it is not funny." Gran-Gran went on.

"They're just kids Ma, let them have their fun. It wasn't that bad, surely."

"Hakoda." Pakku looked at him seriously.

"Alright, I'll talk to them." He assured his father-in-law. "But knowing kids these days, they can be a lot worse."

Pakku shook his head and they grabbed their suitcases, their taxi had arrived. "We will see you in a month."

He walked them to the door, letters in hand and waved goodbye once he finished helping them with the luggage. After that, the house was truly empty. He exhaled and sat down at the table.

The first few letters were of the usual bills, a letter asking whether they could use his restaurant for a wedding celebration but the last was the one he was dreading the most. It was another proposition, one that was asking whether they could buy his land, his house and his whole business. Hakoda had answered 'no' many times before but the person who owned the company would not let the matter drop. Every week another letter would arrive with a different sum of money or a different way of persuading him. It was frustrating him immensely. The company was an anonymous one too. No name would be given, simply a number to call when Hakoda had decided.

He prepared himself as he sliced open the envelope, thinking what new proposition they would come up with now.

It was nothing he expected.

When reading the words, he realised that he was not being asked by anyone, he was being threatened.

 _Dear Hakoda,_

 _Over the past few weeks I have sent various letters of my proposition. I realise you have constantly rejected my offers, but I am confident in saying you do not understand how far I am willing to go, to actually take over your business. This is your penultimate chance of accepting what I have to offer, and I am giving you a warning that if it is not accepted, the consequences are not pleasant. A great deal of turmoil will be received on your end if the next message you leave on my phone is something I do not want to hear. I suggest you heed my words carefully and make the right decision. It would be prudent to do so._

Hakoda froze. The person seemed to have been done with asking nicely and had finally taken the extreme. What did they want with his land? What was he going to do?

Exhaling and running a hand across his face, Hakoda grabbed his phone – calm – and called his lawyer.

When Katara attended her Economics class, she found that Aang was also there, seated at the back and surrounded by a few other boys in her class.

"Hey Aang."

He sat up when seeing her and the boys moved out of her table and seat and returned back to their own positions.

"Hey Katara."

She glanced at his head. "You growing your hair?" she questioned him, pulling out her books.

"Yeah." He answered, blushing slightly. "I thought I'd try it out."

"Cool." She paused for a moment. "I didn't think you'd be the type of person to take economics."

"I thought I'd try it out. Roku said I could just take a few taster classes and drop them later if I don't like them."

"Oh."

"How are the classes anyway?" he asked.

"Truthfully, they're pretty boring."

"Then why do you take them?"

She shrugged. "My dad owns a business and I thought that it would be best to know _something_ about the business world, you know. So I'm not completely left out."

"Guess that makes sense. I heard you want to become a nurse."

"Doctor actually."

"That's cool."

"Thanks."

Once class begun, Katara focussed as usual but out of the corner of her eye kept a watch on Aang who seemed to be struggling. He continuously rubbed at his growing hair, frustrated, he didn't seem to understand most of what the teacher was talking about and so Katara often helped him, explaining something and pointing him in the right direction. He would nod and furrow his eye brows, deep in concentration and thought. Once the lesson ended and they walked out together, he pulled out his tongue and dropped his shoulders.

"Eurgh...!" he spat out. "I hate that class! It stinks! I'm definitely dropping it, didn't understand a thing and it's the most boring thing in the world."

Katara laughed. "It takes a lot of understanding and interest." She told him.

They walked in silence for a while.

"I'm sorry about your mother."

"What?" she turned to him, shocked.

"I'm sorry. Sokka told me about what happened..." he trailed off and seemed to regret mentioning it.

"Uh...okay." She pondered for a moment. "Sokka told you, huh...you don't have to be sorry, it happened a long time ago and you never knew me."

He nodded and remained silent.

"I mean I do miss her and all."

He nodded again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. I'm being rude again."

"It's okay, you're just curious. I mean there are people here who've suffered worse."

"There are?"

"Yeah. I'll see you at lunch."

Aang nodded, "see you later."

"Hey what have you got after school today?"

"Soccer practise."

"Me too."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I'll see you there too!"

She smiled and they finally turned their back on one another and made it to their next class. When it was lunch, Katara saw that Aang and Azula were sitting together and Aang seemed to be paler than usual.

"Aang?" Katara placed her books and files on the table. "You okay?"

Azula checked her nails and smiled. "He's fine. I just told him about my family background."

"What?" Katara questioned her, astounded. "Did he ask you about it or something?"

"No!" Aang interjected. "Sokka told me not to pry and ask other people questions and stuff so I decided not to. I just sat here and started to talking to Azula and she just came out with it!"

"I did not come out with it." She countered. "He said 'hi' so I said 'hi' back, and then he asked me whether I had a good day and I said yes. I asked him whether he was fitting in well and he said he was okay and he loved school and blah, blah, blah...I asked him about his parents because I wanted to know whether he had any and he said no and he told me his life story. He then asked me and I said I just had a dad and things went on from there. I figured Aang was getting pretty close to us so I just told him. Now that you know, you're officially a member of the group."

Aang's jaw dropped at that and Katara slapped a hand on her forehead.

"Azula," she began. "You have the weirdest sense of logic."

"It's not logic, just inevitability. I merely shortened it."

The others arrived after that and when Katara explained to them what Azula had said, Sokka, Toph and Ty Lee laughed, slapping Aang on his back. Aang seemed quite confused and stunned at what had happened and how seriously it was being taken, but he seemed happy and proud nonetheless whilst Zuko, Mai and Suki seemed a little confused by it all.

"What made you tell him about mom in the first place?" Zuko asked his sister.

She shrugged. "I told you, I thought he was bound to find out so-

Suki interrupted her. "I bet that for a moment you were just feeling a bit insecure and you needed someone to talk to."

Azula glared at her. "Whatever Suki, you can believe what you want."

Sokka smiled. "Sounds like that's what happened to me."

"You're just saying that because she's your girlfriend."

"I agree with Suki." Toph stated and Azula found that she was not going to win and she backed down.

"Believe what you want." She told them and continued with her lunch.

"It must have been horrible." Aang said quietly, lost in his thoughts.

"It was," Azula told him. "But over time you get over it."

Sokka shut his book. "Hey, now that Azula has stated you as part of the group, you need to have a sleepover at our place."

"Again Sokka?" Zuko turned to him.

"It's a perfect time. We have a match this week so all you have to do is tell your dad we're going to play in Ba Sing Se's Sports Academy again. I'm sure your dad will fall for that, besides, it's pretty true, the day after that we're going."

Zuko sighed. "I'd rather not risk it..."

"Azula what do you think?"

"I don't mind. You have to admit it is a perfect time Zuko, for both of us."

He jabbed at his food. "Fine, but if we get punished I'm blaming it all on you Azula, it's all your idea."

"I'll take the blame for you big brother, don't worry." She smiled at him and he just rolled his eyes at her.

"A sleepover at your place?" Aang said.

"Yeah. Whaddya think?"

"It's great! I can't wait! Wait..." he turned to Azula and Zuko. "You mean your dad doesn't let you have sleepovers. If you get in trouble...I don't want to-

"Aang don't worry." Azula assured him.

"Seriously Az-

Zuko waved a hand in front of him. "Don't worry about it Aang. We've been through worse."

He remained silent, thinking. "Alright..."

"Great!" Sokka lifted his arms up. "Alright, I'm off to Engineering. See you guys later!"

They sat playing video games a couple of nights later.

"Dad still on your back?"

"Worse."

"How so?"

Zuko sighed. "He just...last week I got a B and he..."

Sokka stopped playing. "He didn't hit you did he?"

"No." Zuko turned away. "He told me I was worthless Sokka." He paused. "Worthless, and said that if I didn't catch up to Azula he would allow Azula to inherit the company and not me."

"You said you hated the company. Didn't even want to become the CEO. You hate the business world."

"I do. But I just wish that he would see me as his son you know...he doesn't even...he hates me Sokka! And I don't want him to, so everything he says I can't help but do it. Urgh...I hate him!"

Throwing away the games console onto the couch he leaned back and folded his arms. "After he checked my report and made sure I understood how much he hated me and was disgusted

by the fact I existed, he locked me in my room the whole night and the day after that."

"He locked you in?"

"Yeah. He barred up my windows last week you know."

"Are you serious? He can't do that. You should report him or something."

"What? If I do that who knows what he'll do. Besides, with the amount of money he has, he controls everything. And as far as I know, he doesn't care about rules."

Sokka shot at a monster on the screen. "Well if you ever need a place to stay you can come here whenever remember."

"Thanks Sokka."

"Azula too if she wants."

"Azula's fine, father likes her better than me."

"And if he ever does get too far..."

"I wouldn't know what to do." Zuko admitted.

"You can't allow him to."

The front door suddenly opened and Toph walked into the room.

"Hey Toph." Sokka asked.

She huffed and sat heavily onto the couch by Zuko, who had not picked the console back up. He sat lost in another world.

"I _hate_ parents!" Toph exclaimed, folding her arms like Zuko.

Sokka nodded once. "What's up?"

"Just my dad, going on about his sexist views. Toph's a girl, she can't do anything. She can't inherit the business; we have to find someone else." She impersonated her father with an unusually high-pitched voice. "Mom tried to tell him that it's _possible_ I can after all, they've both seen my grades and I'm not completely stupid but he insists on it being a boy, someone else that works for him!" she threw her arms up. "I mean...what's wrong with him. Why can't he just accept me?"

"You telling me." Zuko stated.

The both of them sat there, sulking whilst Sokka killed the last monster. "You staying the night?" he asked Toph.

"Yeah, is Katara back yet?"

"No."

Zuko stood up. "I should be going now."

Sokka got up to escort him to the door. "See you tomorrow at school."

"Yeah." Pulling on his jacket he ran into Hakoda in the corridor.

"Zuko," he said. "Are you heading off?"

"Yes sir. Father has a car waiting outside for me."

"Oh. Well see you later."

"Bye, thanks for having me again."

"Anytime son, say hello to your father for me." He said, tucking a few papers under his arms.

"I will sir." He answered lowly and opened the front door, Sokka standing in the doorway.

"Your dad could at least send a less conspicuous car." He said, spotting the big, black hummer waiting for him outside on the pavement.

Zuko sighed. "I wish he wouldn't even send the car in the first place. " He then began walking away.

"Hey Zuko."

He turned back.

"Yeah?"

"If anything bad happens at home," Sokka began awkwardly, "I know your dad can be pretty mean and sometimes he can go a bit over the top, I'm here for you okay." He stared at the ground.

"Uh...thanks Sokka." Zuko paused. "I appreciate it." Jogging towards the car Sokka closed the door once the car had switched on the engine and set off. "Great Sokka, you didn't sound like a dork at all." He muttered to himself and consequently made his way to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Hakoda was sat at the table, surrounded by papers. "Hey dad."

"Hi Sokka."

"You need a hand with anything?"

"No, it's okay son." He exhaled and rubbed his face tiredly. "Just a few reports and offers."

Sokka looked at his father carefully. "You alright dad?"

"I'm fine Sokka." Looking gently into his son's eyes, Sokka nodded and made his way upstairs with a carton of milk. Toph had settled herself in Katara's room on the usual mattress that was always saved for her and so grabbing a towel from the drawer's, Sokka handed it to her and sat in the bedroom's doorway.

"Thanks Sokka." She said, catching it. "You okay?"

"It's my dad." He said quietly. "Lately he looks like he's getting really stressed and he won't tell me what it is."

"Maybe it's nothing for you to worry about."

"Maybe, but I also think that he's keeping something from us so that we don't get involved or burdened or whatever."

"What's wrong with that?" She asked him, lying on the mattress as they talked.

"I don't like being kept in the dark and I want to help him. We're a family, you know...and we're supposed to help each other. I've been thinking about getting it out from Gran-Gran or Grandad, I just haven't figured out if they know, or how to find out if they do."

"They're travelling, it'll be pretty hard. If they were here you could've tricked them into getting drunk on Sake, get information out of them then."

Sokka began laughing at that. "That would've been funny."

"Or, you could just ask him straight out. Tell him you care and you want to help."

He thought about it. "Yeah...I've also been thinking, because my dad is getting pretty stressed, you know the sleep-over we planned, we might have to cancel it. Aang's gonna be crushed, he was really looking forward to it."

Toph thought for a moment. "Or we could have it at my place."

"Your parents aren't exactly going to be thrilled."

"They won't be, because they're not going to be here for the next week or so."

"What, why?"

"Some kind of business trip, which I think is just another way of saying couples vacation."

He laughed. "That would actually be perfect. I'll text Aang." Sliding up from his position he began strolling to his own room. "By the way, Katara won't be over for about another hour, she's at Mai's house."

"That's okay."

Bringing out his phone, he began texting Aang.

 _-Bad news, cnt hav sleepovr at ours._

It wasn't long before there was an answer.

 _-Wot? Y not?_

 _-Dads 2 busy wi wrk, dnt wnt 2 strss him out_

 _-Thts a shame, was lukn 4wad 2 it_

Sokka was impressed with how Aang was suddenly a master at 21st century technology.

 _-U still can, planin on hvin sleepvr at toph's. Tht k?_

 _-U kidin? Chance 2 go 2 bei fong's place! Thts gr8!_

 _-C u at scool 2mrw._

 _-By!_

Sokka smiled and entered his bedroom and readied himself for a good night's sleep.

The phone rang and Hakoda flicked it open, seeing it was his lawyer, Iroh.

"Any improvements?"

"I'm afraid not." Iroh answered.

Hakoda sighed.

"The number you were called from is untraceable, the number he has given you leads to a dead end, he's not given a name of himself or his company and there are no DNA traits on the letters themselves. It's like this person doesn't exist, I've had a lot of people testing and researching."

"So what shall I do?"

"I'm going to be honest with you Hakoda, I don't know. This has turned into a detective's case; it's out of my area."

"I was afraid of that."

"I'm sorry Hakoda."

He ran a hand across his face tiredly. "It's okay, you've done all you can. Guess I'll have to phone Kuei now."

"That would be best." He took a moment of silence. "How are Azula and Zuko?"

"They're fine. Had a sleepover here a couple of nights ago in fact."

Iroh laughed. "I see, I hope they did not cause you despair."

"Oh no, they're great kids. They're looking forward to you coming over."

"With this case I may have to come earlier."

"I don't want to cause you any trouble Iroh."

"This is not a matter of being friendly I'm afraid, this is serious Hakoda. I'm just being professional."

"Of course."

"How are your kids?"

"Katara and Sokka, they're fine. I haven't told anyone about this by the way, not even my parents."

"My lips are sealed."

"Thank you Iroh. Azula and Zuko don't know that I've phoned you either and that you're taking up a case at all."

"Oh, well that is okay, I'll just come and say I've decided to come early because I missed them. Which is not a lie."

"Lu Ten not coming then?"

"No, he's too busy at university. Ozai...he hasn't been too _hard_ on the kids has he?"

Hakoda pondered on what to say. "He's very strict...as usual...but otherwise they're okay, they're handling his rules well, if those are the right words."

He heard Iroh exhale. "I always worry. After their mother's death, he's not been himself. He's been different. More uncaring and I get extremely anxious for them."

"He can't be that bad."

"He may not be, but with Ozai you never know. Even before Ursa he had been quite...unsettled and quite spiteful to the people around him. He wasn't the closest of fathers to his children."

"Don't worry, I'll help them as best I can if they feel threatened."

"Thank you, your family have done more than enough for them when they arrived. I'm just glad Zuko decided to make friends and Azula followed."

"You can thank Sokka for that."

"I will."

"Do you really think this case is this serious?"

"I do. I don't know why Hakoda but...I have a bad feeling about it. I'll see you in about two days."

"Alright Iroh, I'll see you then. Do you have a place to stay?"

"The hotel."

"I'm willing to give you one of my rooms, there are plenty."

"I wouldn't want to burden you."

"You won't, in fact, I'm inviting you."

He thought he could hear Iroh nod. "I appreciate it. See you later."

"Goodbye Iroh." Snapping his phone shut, Hakoda sat up and began to make his way upstairs. He had had a long day at work and all he wanted to do was rest.

"You have a great house Toph!" Aang bounded into her bedroom and bounced onto his mattress which was placed in between Sokka and Zuko's.

She shrugged. "Eh...tell my parents."

Aang looked up. "But it sure is big."

The house consisted of the highest ceilings, the biggest rooms so each room seemed more like a grand hall as opposed to a room. The house overall felt big and empty and cold compared to Hakoda's.

"Just admit it, you think it's a museum." Toph said to him and they laughed. "I swear, if my parents could buy every antique in the world, they would."

"Your room is a lot different to all the others." Aang admitted and saw how she had filled her ceiling with music posters, plastered the walls with pictures of her friends and the many moments in her life. Some of which, Aang had noticed, were of her parents, snapped without them knowing.

"I like to stamp my mark." She answered.

Aang looked around for a moment. "So what do you guys do at sleepovers, just sleep?"

"No." They answered together.

"We play games."

"Eat a lot of rubbish."

"Most of the games we play are truth or dare. Or just dares."

"Pillow fights and wrestling."

"Once we played Blind Tag, we haven't played that for ages. Toph was the best."

"Hide and seek, but we haven't played that for ages either."

"Even Mai?" Aang looked at her. "I thought you didn't play games."

She shrugged. "True, but I do have exceptions. I mean if I was the only one who wasn't playing there would be no point in me coming. Don't you agree?"

"Good point."

Ty Lee sprang up. "Let's play hide and seek!"

"What?" they all spoke up.

"Come on Ty Lee, that's a game for little kids." Azula told her.

"Still fun though." She protested.

"I'd love to play Hide and Seek." Aang said.

"See." Ty Lee smiled. "Now because it's Toph's house, she's on." And then she ran out of the room to hide in some part of the big, empty house.

"Great!" Aang followed her and the others were left with no choice.

Mai sighed, stood up and followed the other two out of the door. "You guys couldn't come up with a lamer game."

"Speak for yourself, I actually like hide and seek. It is actually pretty fun." Katara said.

Sokka agreed. "And to be honest, it's great for honing your stealth skills."

Toph spoke up, still sitting on her mattress. "I seem to remember that the times we played hide and seek; it was always Zuko who won. So we gave up."

"Well, now that Aang's here," Suki started, "maybe he'll finally get beaten."

Zuko shook his head and the six of them ran out of the room.

"I'm giving you sixty seconds and remember, no lights!"

Someone switched the light in her room off and she was suddenly alone. It was completely silent and dark but Toph was not afraid, she was in a house filled with her friends and no strange servants. She had sent them home.

She sat counting out loud.

"60...59...58...57...56...55..."

Aang crept through the shadowy hallway. Long and soundless, apart from the echo of Toph's countdown which reverberated from the walls. There was no one about. Each door was a stranger and they seemed alive, he didn't dare place his hand on the cold, metal handles in case they would bite back, after all, he was an alien to the house, not to mention the country.

Restraining his fears, he grabbed a handle and pushed the door.

A simple room was revealed. One that bore a four poster bed, standing against the wall mutely. There were wardrobes and shelves, chairs and a table for studying. In fact, the room seemed to be unused as there was no sign of any life. No clothes scattered about, no paper or pens. Pulling open a wardrobe, he saw there was nothing apart from a few dust webs in the corners when he ran his hand across the thick, polished wood. It wasn't a good hiding place though, too obvious.

Standing back and looking around he saw that on top of the wardrobes, there was a good amount of space, a good gap he could just fit in. Grinning, Aang leapt onto the table silently and clambered up, making sure the door behind him was closed so Toph didn't know he had entered. Curling up into a ball, he hid in the shadows and waited.

"3...2...1...ready or not here I come!"

Toph stood up and smiled, remembering why she used to love the game so much, and why it was best to be the person who went to find the others.

Slipping out of her room, she was met by the hallway and she looked for signs that showed where they had moved.

There were none.

Thinking of what to do, she decided to check the rooms one by one and so started with the spare bedroom across hers. Opening the door by a small crack, she peeked inside to look for a small lump of black which belonged to a person. There were none and thus, she slunk into the room and began to search under the bed, inside every wardrobe, behind every shelf or any place that would be considered a hiding place, all the while making sure no one snuck out behind her back, which was why she left the door closed.

Nothing.

Moving out the room, she moved to the next one and repeated the process.

Nothing again.

In the next room, she snuck in, closed the door behind her and stood still for a moment, searching for anything living.

Instead there was something hanging from the chandelier.

Something long, something that looked like it had wings or feathers or something, but it was alive and breathing. The black smudge in the middle of the room was _breathing_.

Toph froze, unsure with what to do and thought that perhaps she was imagining things. She blinked and tried to refocus her eyes again. It was still there. Heart hammering against her chest Toph wondered what to do. There was nothing to grab and use as a weapon.

Before she was able to do anything however, the thing twitched, making the chandelier make the eeriest sound of metal clanging against each other and then it fell onto the floor, onto its feet.

The thing pushed Toph onto her back and she grunted out a sound. They then jumped away, giggling before Toph got back up onto her feet.

"I'm gonna kill you Ty Lee!" she yelled out to her and followed her out the door, chasing the thing she had thought was some kind of hanging monster. Yet when she was in the hallway, there was no one, she had vanished.

"Urgh..." she muttered. "I hate her."

The next room she checked was the bathroom and there she found Suki, curled up in the dry bath.

"Got you Suki!"

"Not until you pin me onto the floor!" she yelled back and they then began

wrestling. Unfortunately, Suki was able to get up and run away after having jabbed Toph in the stomach and pushing her away, leaving Toph extremely frustrated that she hadn't got anyone out yet. Chasing her out into the corridor, Toph managed to grab her ankles after diving for her before she ran around the corner. Suki screamed out in surprise that she had been dragged back and was unable to move against the floor.

"Got you! You're out!"

She groaned. "Fine! Just let me up." She mumbled, face squashed against the floor.

Toph let her up and Suki walked her way back to Toph's room sulkily. She had been caught.

"See you later loser!" Toph teased.

"Don't make me beat you up." Suki told her, and she walked her way back in the dark.

Toph grinned to herself, having been successful and continued her search.

"Alright Zuko we give up!"

They were crowded in the hallway, Toph having found them all. All except Zuko that was. Aang had been the penultimate person to find and when he had been, Toph had dragged him from the top of the wardrobe of where he had been hiding.

"Come on Zuko!" Suki called. "You won!"

"It's about time, I was getting fed up of staying in one place."

They turned around, seeing that he was coming up from the stairs, yawning and stretching. They clapped as he walked forward and he smiled as they began making their way back to Toph's bedroom.

"So where were you?" Toph questioned him.

"Kitchen shelf."

She thought for a moment and slapped her head. "Of course! But..." she made a face at him. "You were all the way up there, how did you climb up and not make a sound?"

He shrugged. "I have my ways."

"That was a great game guys!" Aang bounced. "You know what would be really fun, if we played it back at school and the whole place was empty."

They arrived in the bedroom and made it to their own bedspreads.

"That would be cool." Sokka agreed.

"I don't know, the place is too big to hide in. Probably take us the whole night to find each other." Katara said.

"Who was found first?" Zuko asked Toph.

"I found Ty Lee but she ran off, the first I caught was Suki." Toph told him and at that Suki pulled a tongue out at her.

Placing his head on the pillow, Sokka lay down and closed his eyes. "Well, I don't know about you guys but I'm tired. G'night."

"Already Sokka?" Azula said to him.

"What? I like my sleep."

The others followed, all except Mai and Katara who began texting someone. They sat in the corner, the small light source illuminating the one section while the others began falling asleep in the dark.

"What're you guys doing?" Aang whispered to them.

"We're sending 'Yo Mama' jokes to Jet." Katara whispered back to him.

He lifted his head. "Mai as well?"

Katara smiled. "As much as she hates it, she actually knows a lot."

"But it doesn't mean I like it." Mai said to Aang.

Katara looked at him. "Do you know any?"

"Loads! Back at the Air Monastery, we used to play all the time. The elder monks didn't know of course."

"Come and help us."

He got up carefully, avoiding trampling anyone and sat by the side of Mai and for the best part of an hour, they were up, having the most ridiculous battle which, they were proud to say, the three of them won.

They giggled when Jet gave up with a final back down and by then, the rest of them were asleep.

It was around about eleven 'o' clock in the morning when they awoke, much later than any of them would wake up at all, but because they were by themselves, the whole of the house available to them, they spent it lounging around and doing nothing. No parents and no chores and they left their homework for another day.

"So what are we doing for the rest of the day?" Aang asked anyone.

Sokka, who lay on his bedspread reading a comic, turned the page. "I vote cinema."

"Me too." Toph agreed.

"Me three." Added Ty Lee.

"Me four." Suki said, "as long as it's a horror film."

"With zombies." Azula pitched in, entering the room after showering and lounging back on the mattress, picking up her phone and sticking an earphone in her ear.

"We'll go tonight." Zuko arranged, checking the times on the internet. "At seven, is that okay for you guys?"

"Yeah." They answered at once.

"I'm off to get some Pop Tarts, anyone want some?" Katara stood up and made her way to the door.

A chorus of 'me's' followed and so she exited the room and began making her way to the kitchen, barefoot, a towel still wrapped around her hair and still wearing a fresh, long T-Shirt and shorts. Stretching as she entered the kitchen she began rummaging through the cupboards, found a few crackers and began munching on them as she stood in front of the window, sun beams falling on her gently. It was a nice day and Toph's garden looked beautiful in the light.

Opening the back door, she looked around and breathed in the fresh air. The large, man-made pond rippled, bearing floating pink and white lilies that floated above the water. The reeds in the centre surrounded the sculpted fish. Then there were the many blossom trees which bloomed with the most beautiful soft pinks and whites around the edges of the garden, causing it to snow every time a gentle breeze tugged at the petals. It was beautiful, she thought.

She was about to turn back, returning to the kitchen to find some pop tarts and drink a carton of milk when a shadow in the corner of her eye stopped her. She turned and saw that standing in the pond, there was a man. A man that had definitely not been there before.

He was tall man, a tall, bulky man who had the physique of a boxer and the looming and intimidating presence of an omen. He even had a metal arm which made Katara stare even more and his head was completely bald, the forehead bearing a tattoo of an eye. What made Katara's insides freeze however, was that he seemed to be holding a shotgun on his back and there were pistols wrapped around his waist.

The man was going to attack her.

She attempted to run inside but when her fingers were just an inch away from grabbing the open door, she felt arms wrap around her body from behind, a large hand cover her mouth and she was dragged away.

She screamed, stamped on the man's foot and attempted to pull his arms away and throw him to the ground.

Although the man was too big and heavy to move, no matter how much she struggled.

He pressed a cloth to her mouth and nose and before she could anything, she passed out, and was taken away.

Sokka sat up. "Where's Katara?"

"She went to get Pop Tarts," Toph told him. She sat with Ty Lee and Suki who were flicking through pictures of a previous football game.

"I know but that was like half an hour ago." He looked around. "She should've been back by now." Something was wrong, he couldn't explain it but something felt wrong. Getting up, he decided. "I'm gonna go find her."

"She probably went off to the library or something, she does spend a lot of time there remember. Relax Sokka." Mai told him.

"I don't know..." he trailed off. "I'm still going to look." Making his way out of the room he was soon strolling down the empty hallway, away from the room where they were all in. He listened out for her shuffle or cough, any sound at all that would tell him where she was. There was nothing. Poking his head into a bedroom, he glanced around. There was nothing again.

He sighed out and walked down the stairs, standing in the downstairs hallway. "Katara?" he called out quietly. No one answered.

Wandering into the kitchen he looked around and found that she was not there either. Except the door was open, the one that led into back garden. Opening it up fully he stuck his head out. "Katara you here?" there was silence apart from the singing birds. "Katara!" he looked around and searched. No one by the pond, no one by the trees or at the other side of the house, there was no sign of her.

Worrying about her disappearance, he returned to the house and searched the rest of the rooms thoroughly. The attempt was unsuccessful. Walking back to the kitchen door he glanced around once more, perhaps she had gone further than he thought.

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention and looking back, he saw there was something on the floor. It was a blue necklace.

Picking it up he realised quickly it was Katara's, she wore it constantly. He knew it so well because it had once belonged to his mother and Katara, she would never take the thing off. Why was it on the floor?

Something had happened.

Racing back to the bedroom upstairs he pushed open the door aggressively, necklace in hand.

"Katara's missing."

The others turned around, concerned when he stated his suspicions.

"What?" Aang half stood up, alarm upon his face.

"How do you know?" Suki asked him.

"She isn't in the house," he explained. "I've checked everywhere and I found this," he lifted the necklace up. "It was on the floor, outside in the garden."

They understood that, knowing Katara never took it off.

"Does she have her phone?" Zuko questioned him.

Azula shook her head. "No, it's here." She lifted the object up.

Zuko stood up. "Let's search the house again. Sokka, Suki, Toph, you search outside, the rest of us'll search the house and if we don't find her, meet back in the kitchen."

They nodded and went there separate ways. Where was she?

After half an hour of searching - looking in every wardrobe, every chest, behind every curtain - they met in the kitchen, unsuccessful and worried about what had happened.

"She wasn't anywhere?" Mai asked Sokka, Suki and Toph who had searched around the outside of the house which included the gardens and even a few streets away.

"Nowhere." Sokka fretted. "I mean, if she went into town she would have her phone and she would've told us. So..." he carried on.

Azula thought for a moment. "Let's get changed, after that we can go into town but one or two of us will have to stay here, in case she comes back."

They nodded and quickly ran upstairs to get ready. Toph and Ty Lee were the ones who had to stay in the house and the others set off. They searched every shop, asking if they had seen her, looked around every street and even went to the library and questioned the librarian. Sokka had phoned Toph later on, asking whether she had arrived but her answer had been no and so they went on, checking restaurants and even the hairdressers. After two whole hours, defeated, they arrived back at the house.

"Now what?" Aang questioned them. "Does this usually happen?"

"No." They said together and Sokka huffed onto the sofa, stressed.

"We're gonna have to call dad." He stated, running a hand across his face and then pulling at his spiked Mohawk.

"You sure?" Zuko told him. "We don't want to stress him."

"Maybe she went home." He said. "We'll just ask him that first. But...she can't have. She would've told us if she did that."

"Sokka," Azula stated. "Have you considered she may have been taken?"

Sokka looked at her and at everyone else who suddenly looked extremely worried. He answered, "yes," and then flicked open his phone. "Hi dad." He said lowly. "Is Katara there by any chance?" he questioned him and sighed when he received an answer. "Okay...dad um...I have something to tell you and...don't...explode...please."

They heard Hakoda ask, "what is it?"

"The thing is..." he answered. "We can't find Katara, we think she's missing."

"What?"

"We can't find her, we've looked everywhere. She's not in the house or anywhere else and we've been looking for hours."

"What happened?"

"This morning we woke up and she went downstairs to get something from the kitchen and she didn't come back."

"I'm coming over."

"Okay. Hurry please." Shutting his phone, Sokka looked up. "He's coming." Ty Lee walked over to him and hugged him briefly.

"It'll be okay." She told him. "We'll find her."

He nodded, staring at the ground.

Hakoda arrived quickly.

Sokka opened the door and Hakoda stepped in without hesitation.

"What's going on?"

They were all sitting in the kitchen and explained again what had happened. Hakoda, once they finished took a minute to stare at the wall, lost in his own thoughts. When he snapped out of it, Sokka saw a look of command on his face. His worry was hidden.

"I'm sorry dad..." Sokka mumbled. He didn't know what to say but he suddenly felt guilty. His sister had vanished. He was supposed to protect her.

His father shook his head. "It wasn't your fault Sokka. We don't know where she is so we need to find her, for all we know, she could be safe and fine." He breathed out. "And if she is, she's going to be grounded when we get home." He stood up. "Right, I'll search the house again and the rest of you split up and find her externally. Azula, Zuko, you search the back end of the city, Sokka, Suki, you take the mall, Toph, Aang, you talk to the neighbours, Mai and Ty Lee, the cinema. You should all check the rest of the city once you've done that and ask people if they've seen her. I'll do that too once I've checked the house. Keep your phones switched on."

They nodded and without complaint, they jumped off the counters and stools they were sat on and began the search. Toph handed Hakoda the keys to her house and immediately they set off. However, Hakoda called Aang back for a second and so Toph lingered near the door.

He held out his hand which Aang took. "My name is Hakoda, I'm sorry we couldn't meet under different circumstances."

Aang grinned slightly. "That's alright sir, I just hope we can find Katara. I'll do my best."

He nodded. "Thank you Aang."

Once that was said, they split and went their separate ways.

Toph knocked on the door and it opened, revealing a boy with a large gap in his front teeth.

"Hey Li," Toph said. Aang was knocking on the house opposite. "I was just wondering whether you'd seen Katara?"

Li thought for a moment. "The pretty girl with the long, brown hair that always wears blue?"

"Yeah."

"Today? No, why?"

"You sure? You haven't seen her just walk by your house or anything?"

"No."

"How about anything different? Have you seen someone you don't know on the street?"

He shook his head. "I could ask mom or dad, or my brother."

"Yeah, can you do that?"

"Sure." He turned around and shouted for his mother, leaving the door open. "Mom! Dad! Hey Setsu! Toph's asking whether you've seen Katara!"

"Who?" a voice called back.

He ran further forward. "Katara! You seen her today?"

Toph waited for a minute whilst he asked around the house and when he returned, Toph was disappointed with the answer. "No, sorry."

She sighed. "That's okay, thanks Li. Tell your parents I said hi."

He nodded. "Alright. See you later Toph."

"Seeya." She turned around and walked down the driveway and saw Aang was walking towards her too. He shook his head indicated he had no luck and so they moved onto the next house.

The next door Aang knocked on, revealed an old woman. He bowed when she opened it fully.

"I'm sorry to disturb you ma'am, but my friend is missing and I was wondering whether you'd seen her. Her name's Katara, she has long, brown hair, wears blue, she's really pretty and kinda tall, has dark skin."

The woman thought for a while, taking her time as she pondered. "No, I haven't seen no girl like that."

"Oh." Aang was disappointed. "Well...have you seen anything else on the street today, any strangers?"

"Oh yes. A strange car drove up this road a while ago. A black one, couldn't tell what make it was though, I'm not too good with cars."

"Really? Did you see who was in it?"

"I did, in fact I saw him park not far from here, just a few houses down in front of Aunt Wu's house. When he stepped out of the car I thought he was someone to cause trouble, but he just walked away."

"What did he look like?"

"A great big man, threatening kind, bald head, strange clothes and there was something on his forehead. Looked to have a goatee too."

Aang bowed again. "Thank you, you've been most helpful."

"You're welcome young man." She closed the door once Aang sped away. He ran to where she was pointing, where she had said the car had been and inspected the area. There were a few tyre marks on the floor and he knocked on the door that the car had directly been in front of. Once the door opened, Aang bowed.

"Aunt Wu? My name is Aang, I was just wondering if you knew anything about the car that was parked in front of your house not long ago."

She nodded. "I did see it. What of it?"

"Could you tell me where it went or even if you knew what kind of car it was?"

"I don't know what kind of car it was but the man that came out of it didn't seem like a very good person. Looked like he wanted to cause trouble."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

She nodded. "He came and parked in the early morning, about sunrise and it'd been there for hours. He just walked out and away and didn't arrive back until it was almost midday. But he had a large sack over his shoulders when he returned, like he was carrying groceries."

Aang's jaw dropped.

"Young man, are you okay?"

He nodded. "What did he do with the sack?"

"Put it in the boot and drove off."

"Do you know in which direction?"

"Down the road." She pointed. "Turned left at the junction."

"Did you see the registration plate or anything, anything to identify the car? Or even just him."

"Not the car, no, but he had a tattoo on his head. It was strange. Like it was an eye. He looked like a thug in all honesty."

Aang ran. "Thank you!" he called back, leaving Aunt Wu mystified as to what had caused him to look so worried and run.

"Toph!" Aang called to her as he ran. "Toph!" she was talking to someone and when hearing his voice, she turned around and walked to him when saying goodbye to the man that'd open the door.

"What is it?" she questioned him. His face was stricken with anxiety.

"I just talked to Aunt Wu," he explained, "and she said that at sunrise a car parked up in front of her house."

"So...?"

"Just listen. She said a man walked out and away and returned at about midday, that's when Katara went missing, she said that when he did return, he had a heavy sack over his shoulders, which he didn't have before and he threw it into the boot of the car and drove off! A _sack_ Toph!"

She froze. "You think it was Katara?"

"Yes!" he nodded frantically.

She raised her hands. "Wait, wait, wait, wait...you could be wrong, what if the guy just went to pick something up and put it into his car. We have to think about the different angles here."

"Come on Toph! Aunt Wu said it was someone that looked like trouble, wasn't from around here and what was he going to get? There are no shops around here, this is your area, you should know and besides..." he breathed in. "There's something else. The woman that lives in that house over there said he had something on his forehead and when I talked to Aunt Wu, she said it was of an _eye_." He stared at her gravely.

Toph however, didn't understand. "So? Lots of people have tattoos."

"You don't understand. The tattoo means something. Back at the Shaolin monastery, we were taught that a long time ago a group of monks who didn't agree with the ideas and the ways of the monks had broken away from the monastery, they left the ways they'd been taught and created their own group, away from seclusion like we are and they actually lived within the cities. We don't know where they're situated or anything but they were bad people. Instead of teaching themselves discipline and good like we are, they began training themselves and others as assassins. They didn't believe in equality and respect for life, they just used the Shaolin training as a weapon. And to signify themselves from us, they tattooed an eye on their forehead."

Toph stared. "You're not serious are you? A secret society that emanated from the Shaolin monks kidnapped Katara? You've got be kidding?"

"I'm not Toph! I'm serious!"

"It's gotta be coincidence or something. Are you sure that just wasn't a story that developed back at the monastery?"

"No Toph! It's taught as history! The Shaolin monks have a lot of secrets, with the methods of teaching and everything. It's them! I know it!"

Toph took a second to soak it in. "So if he was an assassin, then he was hired. Someone else is behind Katara's kidnapping."

He nodded.

"Shit..." she cursed. "Katara was kidnapped."

"We have to tell Hakoda." Aang stated.

They ran back to the house.

Katara opened her eyes and looked around, her head was pounding and her eyesight was bleary. When it improved however, she focussed on the images around her and realised with sudden shock, that she didn't know where she was and her hands were bound together, and her mouth was gagged.

Oh no, she thought. No, no, no, shit, she'd been kidnapped, she didn't know where she was.

Sitting up, Katara looked around frantically, taking in her surroundings. She was in what looked like a basement. Cold, stone walls, stone floor and at the far end of the room, there was what looked like a thick, iron door. No doubt it was locked. The room was bare, only accompanied by the dust webs in the corner. There wasn't even a window and the light source was from a bare, light bulb on the ceiling.

What was she going to do?

Think calmly Katara, she thought, just be calm, don't panic. You need to get out, what can you do?

As a first, she began with her bounds. Pulling and twisting her hands she attempted to loosen them but she had been trying for an age and nothing happened. She shivered, it was cold and she was still in her pyjamas which had become dirty due to the basement she was in. As a second attempt, she began loosening her gag, thinking that perhaps she could use her teeth to gnaw at the rope tied around her hands.

Whilst she worked, Katara hoped that the person she had been kidnapped by would not return.

"She was kidnapped?" Hakoda was beginning to fret and Sokka's jaw dropped.

"What are we going to do?" Toph questioned him.

Hakoda paced the room, thinking. "We have to call the police, report her and they can get an investigator." He flicked open his phone. "I don't know about the monk thing Aang."

"I swear sir, it's true. It might be a little hard to believe in this country but it's true."

Hakoda nodded and breathed out. "I believe you Aang."

Aang felt content, Hakoda's words rang true, he really did believe him.

"Hello, I'd like to report a kidnapping." Hakoda said to the operator on the phone and then for the next quarter of an hour, he sat talking to the person on the other side. When he did snap his phone shut, he began pacing again. "An investigators coming over for questions."

"What are they gonna do? We need to go out and look for Katara now." Sokka said, frustrated.

"Sokka, they know what they are doing, it's their profession." He paused. "But Aang, if what you're saying is true, can you think of anything that will help us find where she is?"

Aang shrugged, frantically thinking of ideas. "I don't know, but we could call them." He blurted out.

The others stared at him.

"What?" Sokka asked him.

"I mean...if you want to know who kidnapped her and who hired the assassin, can't you contact the assassins and ask them questions about it?"

Hakoda shook his head at Aang's ridiculous answer. "It is really not that simple Aang. Assassins aren't just listed in the book and even if we do contact them, _somehow,_ they aren't going to talk. They're killers, they're more likely to kill us for asking the questions. They wouldn't answer us anyway and besides, I don't want to get mixed up with a slaughtering group. Not to mention I don't know how. I hadn't even known they had existed." He breathed out. "I really hope Katara is okay. Some of you go and out and see if you can track the car through people. We need to know where he went."

Zuko, Azula and Aang stood up and made their way out of the house.

"Aunt Wu said he turned left at this road. Maybe we can ask people where the car went to next." Aang said to Zuko and Azula when they made it to the end of the road.

Zuko nodded. "Let's split up."

They made it to different houses and asked various people, and the only people who did know about the car were a young couple who had been gardening at the time.

"It wasn't hard to miss. A great big car like that." The woman said and Azula thanked her.

"She said he turned right at the end of the road." She told the other two and they then ran to the end of the road and began talking to others who had possibly seen the car. The trail however, ended at the city centre, where the people who had probably seen the car were no longer there. They were lost on what to do.

"Now what?" Aang questioned.

"I guess we could sneak into the cities camera centre." Azula suggested.

"And how are we going to do that?" Aang asked her. "Where's the central watcher area anyway?"

Azula shrugged. "I guess we could find out."

"How?" Zuko asked her.

"Don't really know to be honest but the mall is in the centre of this city, it has loads of cameras and if he went through the city he's ninety percent likely to pass the mall, if we could sneak into there, find the camera room, we might be able to spot the car."

Zuko sighed. "I know what you're gonna say 'Zula."

She nodded and smiled. "Yep, you're going to do it. This is for-

"Katara's sake, I know, which is why I'm going to do it. Let's go." They turned to walk to the mall.

"Wow, that's a weird plan. How do you know it's gonna work?" Aang asked them.

"We don't." Zuko answered. "But it's worth a try."

"Besides, it's no weirder than your story about the Shaolin assassins." Azula told him and at that, he shrugged and agreed.

When in the mall, the three of them stood leaning against a wall, watching a door that bore a code lock.

"Right," Zuko began. "We can try and crack it but I suggest doing this discretely, so we just have to wait for someone to go in or out and we'll make a run for it and sneak through."

Azula nodded and the both of them watched the door intently.

Aang however, looked around and snuck away, running to a cleaner who was sweeping up a food court.

"Aang, you with us?" Zuko turned around but the both of them saw he was nowhere to be seen. "Aang?" he straightened and glanced around. He'd vanished.

"Aang?" Azula called out.

"Hey guys!"

Looking back, they saw Aang was standing near the coded door, which was wide open and he was waving, standing next to a cleaner who stood with a mop.

Zuko and Azula walked to him slowly, confused.

"What's going on?" Zuko asked the monk.

He smiled back. "I told Li our situation, and he was nice enough to let us in. He says he knows where the camera room is."

"Really?" Zuko asked, surprised.

"As long as we have two gold pieces." Aang said sheepishly and grinned at them both. Li, who stood behind him, nodded contently.

Azula scoffed. "I'm not surprised." She stuck a hand into her jeans pocket and brought out a coin and was about to give it to the cleaner. "Understand this, that if the situation wasn't urgent, I'd be beating you to the floor and you'd lose your job...but...hard times call for softer measures..." she placed the coin into his hand and he smiled widely at her. "You get the other half when you've showed us where it is and we're out safely."

He nodded. "Sure," and placed the coin into his apron.

The corridor was empty and bare.

"Here." He pointed a thumb towards a door.

Azula glanced at it. "You don't have a key do you." She stated.

He shrugged. "I said I'd get you through the first door and to the camera room, I didn't say I could get you into the room itself."

Zuko was about to pound him into the ground until Azula placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Cool it Zuko, he's telling the truth, it's a good tactic."

"I don't care if it's a good tactic!" he yelled at his sister. "How are we supposed to get in now?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled out a pin from her hair. "Jeez Zuko, your supposed to be Master Stealth, you mean you can't think of anything on your feet?"

He grabbed the pin and grumbled, turning to the lock and began picking it. It wasn't long before there was a click and he twisted the handle and let himself in. Azula followed him inside.

"Aang, you stay outside and keep guard, make sure we're not caught and that this chump doesn't go and tell anyone."

Aang nodded and leaned against the wall, folding his arms.

"Hey I 'aint going anywhere," the cleaner said. "I still want my money."

"Whatever," Azula muttered and then disappeared into the room.

"Nice friends you got." He said to the bald monk. "Where'd you find them? They're crooks."

"What makes you say that?" Aang questioned him.

"They can pick locks and stuff and they were gonna beat me up!"

"I can pick locks and beat you up and I'm from the Shaolin monastery."

His jaw dropped. " _You're_ a Shaolin monk?"

"Sure am!" he grinned widely.

"What the spirits are you doing here then?"

"I don't know." Aang said. "The monks don't like kids that can pick locks and stuff. But I wouldn't just beat you up. I'm a monk see."

The cleaner was slightly confused and so they stood in the corridor for the remaining time in silence. Aang would often glance into the room, seeing how Azula and Zuko were prowling through CDs and video tapes, looking for the right date and time and he saw how they were rewinding and fast-forwarding the videos.

"You found the car yet?" Aang whispered.

"No." Zuko whispered back.

"Wait..." Azula interrupted. "What's that?"

They were silent again and then...

"He went into the mall?"

"Why?"

"Find the next CD, looks like he's going into the shop."

"Where's Katara?"

There was another silence.

"Come on guys, tell me what's going on." Their silence was unnerving and the looks they had on their faces told him something serious was going on.

"Shush Aang, we're trying to think." Azula said to him.

Aang remained quiet and when they were done with the videos, they placed everything back to where they belonged and closed the door behind them.

"What happened?" Aang asked them.

Azula looked at him. "It's not good."

"Hey, what about my gold coin!"

Zuko made a fist but Azula stopped him by throwing the coin to the floor. "Here," and then they made their way out of the corridor and back into the main mall.

"The assassin came here," Zuko began. "He left the car in the parking lot and went into a shop called Liao's, it's a weapons shop but the thing is, Katara was never with him. It was like he just vanished into the shop and never came out again, leaving her in the car."

"So we looked back at the car and saw that a white van parked up next to it, opened the boot and transferred a sack into the back and drove off." Azula finished.

Aang felt numb. "Katara...?"

"Yeah." Zuko said.

Aang felt panicked. "What are we gonna do?"

Zuko breathed. "I have an idea."

"What is it?" Azula asked.

"I'm guessing the base is somewhere in that shop. Maybe underneath or something if they're an underground assassin group, that's why he never came out."

"Or maybe there's a back door or corridor that leads to it. Good theory." Azula praised him.

"Yeah, and I was wondering, maybe, we could go in and find out who hired him."

Aang scoffed. "And how are we gonna do that? We're kids Zuko, they're not exactly going to listen to us. They're big, ex-Shaolin monk assassins that use guns!"

"I agree, they're not exactly going to give us the information, even if we hurt them." Azula said thoughtfully.

Zuko nodded, agreeing. "And there'll probably be loads of them, so it's dangerous. But...last year uncle gave me some of these herbs that numb the senses and it can act like a truth serum because the person whose been drugged isn't in the right mind. He doesn't know what he's saying."

"Why doesn't Uncle give _me_ that kind of stuff?" Azula complained. "He gives you knives and swords and poisonous drugs and he gives me clothes and toys!"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "That is not the point right now 'Zula and the drug isn't poisonous. And uncle doesn't give you toys! Last year he gave you an antique shield from the Fire Nation."

"An _antique_! Exactly! What am I gonna do with that! It's not exactly practical."

"Guys!" Aang yelled. "Stay focussed!"

"Sorry." They muttered together and Zuko continued.

"Anyway...I was thinking I could sneak in, corner him and drug him, get him to tell us who he was hired by."

"How do you know what he looks like?" Aang asked.

"We got a pretty good look of him in the videos." Azula explained.

"But there'll be loads of assassins," Aang protested. "They might look the same and you could get the wrong one."

Zuko shook his head. "I could probably pick him out, you always have to look at the smaller details."

"Why can't we just follow the van that stole Katara? Wouldn't that be more practical?"

Azula shook her head. "It would, but the van went into an area where there are no cameras and no people. We wouldn't be able to follow it."

"Can't we try?"

Zuko and Azula thought for a moment.

"We could." Azula said. "But we'll have to tell the others what we've found and get them to do it."

"Does the van have a registration plate?" Aang asked.

"No, it didn't."

Aang sighed and scratched his head. "What do you need Zuko?"

"Two really good distractions."

Hakoda laid his heads in his hands and breathed.

"Sir?"

Turning around, Hakoda faced the inspector and put on a face that showed he was in control, he was not panicking, he was not giving into his angst.

"May I ask where the kids have gone?"

Hakoda smiled at him. They had received news from Zuko, Azula and Aang that they were onto something big and they had gone to try and track a car. He explained that to the inspector, who did not take it well.

"What? And you let them?" he said to him harshly. "Might I remind you that this has become a case for the police, they should not be getting involved. They are in serious danger."

Hakoda nodded and flicked open his phone to call them. He knew they were in danger and that only the police would want to investigate, it was practical after all. But he knew the kids, even if they were told to stay in the house or even if they were locked up in a room, they would have somehow made it out and gone anyway to find Katara themselves. At least this way he knew where they were and would not hesitate to contact him, he thought.

Sokka picked up the phone. "Hey dad, the police found anything yet?"

"No."

"Shit." His son muttered.

"Sokka," he scolded. "Be calm. He's told me you should stay out of it."

"That stuck up-

"Sokka."

He quieted.

Hakoda went on. "You know they're only being practical, they're trying to help remember. They're friends, not enemies."

"I know."

"Have you found anything yet?" Hakoda asked him.

"No. Nothing."

"Any word from Zuko and the others?"

"No-

"Sir?" the inspector called him.

Hakoda turned around. "Yes?"

"I've contacted the security for that area to look for the van. No registration plate did you say?"

"No registration plate."

"Well, we're doing all we can. We should get going to the station. You calling the kids to return?"

He nodded.

"Good." The inspector then turned to the door.

"Sokka," Hakoda turned back to the phone. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah."

"Call me once you've found something. And be safe."

"I know dad."

"Do you know what the other three are doing?"

Sokka paused before he answered. "I think they're trying to get into the assassin's base."

Hakoda froze and stopped himself from blurting out a few swears. "What? Tell them not to!"

"Dad I'm sure they can look after themselves."

"I know they can! I know they know Kung Fu and weaponry but...I couldn't live with myself if something happened. And they're not even my kids, what do I tell their parents?"

"Ozai doesn't even care for Zuko and Azula."

"Have you forgotten about their uncle Sokka?"

"Dad I know it's dangerous but...they've gone."

He breathed out in frustration. "This is an assassin group, not a group of school students. They're killers. I swear to the sprits if something happens..." he trailed off. "Keep me updated Sokka." He knew that he himself saying 'no' would do no good. The only way to stop them was to actually go and drag them back. But there was no time. They were going to get killed. They were actually going to get killed and he was allowing them to.

"I will dad." His son answered.

Damn it, he didn't want to lose anymore kids. "And Sokka-

"I know, be safe."

The phone line went dead after that and Hakoda snapped his phone shut, turning to the door and locking Toph's house up. Everything was out of control. "Katara," he sighed. "Where are you?"

Katara was silently dancing around in glee.

She was finally free.

Albeit, there were a few large marks around her wrists and mouth where the rope tore at her skin but other than that, she was free and standing next to the door. The locked door.

Her glee diminished.

There was a lock and pulling out her clip, she pulled the metal and formed it into some kind of pick. Zuko had taught her how to pick locks, yet she had never gotten the hang of it. It was worth a try, she thought.

Before she placed the metal into the key hole however, there was loud sound of banging from the other side, as if it was caused by large bolts being slid open and unlocked. Katara flattened herself against the wall and when the door swung open, she was not seen by the person who entered.

The person who did enter was a male. They were tall and seemed quite skinny for a man and even wore an apron around their waist. Their clothes were practical, for working more than anything else and it did not look like the man who had kidnapped her. It definitely did not.

When the man saw the empty space of where Katara had been, she saw him freeze and she waited for him to turn around. When he did, he was about to scream but Katara silence him with a fist to his head and he lay crumpled on the floor, unconscious.

"Sorry." Katara muttered. She realised he had brought her a jug of water. The loud clatter and clang made her cringe.

Dragging him to the ropes of where she had been tied up, she secured him, making sure he could not escape and she then fled from of the cell, locking the door behind her and quietly moved forward through the mysterious building, trying to find a way out.

Zuko, Azula and Aang sprinted out of the building as fast as they could, panting and glancing back, making sure they were not being chased by goons with guns.

"That was a great plan guys." Aang said to the other two.

They scowled at him in response. "Shut up Aang." They said together and then the three of them looked back simultaneously. They weren't being chased by anyone.

Sprinting around a corner they hid behind a collection of garbage bins and leaned against the wall.

"Now what?" Zuko asked.

"Maybe we could see how the others are getting along?" Aang suggested and the other two nodded, agreeing. They weren't going to try getting into the secret base again, it was suicide.

"Maybe there's another way in." Zuko thought out loud.

"No!" Aang and Azula said together.

"Well what are we supposed to do?" he asked them. "Katara's missing and we don't know if she's in danger, they're the only lead we've got!"

"There has to be something else Zuko." Aang said to him. "I'm gonna call Hakoda and see if the police have found anything."

They nodded and the three of them began walking.

The first distraction had gone great. Aang and Azula had set off a few fireworks in front of the shop and the people inside had run straight out so Zuko was able to sneak in. The lock for the door behind the counter required a code although Zuko had simply smashed it open and stepped inside. He hadn't been expecting the traps however. Traps that included speeding arrows. Perhaps finding out the code would have been a better idea.

When that had happened, Zuko saw that there were a few big men running towards him from the corridor behind the hidden door, with shot guns. Zuko had abandoned fighting, knowing he wouldn't survive with his position and just ran. He hated himself for it but he had to be practical if he was going to save Katara. The attackers had even worn masks showing a massive, staring eye ball which had unnerved him even more. He met up with the other three telling them to abort the plan and they had just ran, especially when they glanced back and saw what they were being chased by.

"Hey guys." Aang said.

"What?"

"Katara called."

"What?" they said together, shocked and confused.

"Hakoda said she called from the kidnapper's house apparently."

"What did she say?"

"How is it she called?" they asked the questions at once.

"It's not good news." Aang said sadly.

Katara was staring around, astounded. She was in a really big and beautiful house.

Most of the walls were painted a deep, dark red and the floors and the corners of the ceilings were made up of a dark, polished wood. She had even seen a few servants running around and had just about avoided them seeing her. It was surreal. Perhaps she had been kidnapped by some rich criminal that sold people as slaves. Katara shuddered at the thought. The windows she had seen were tall but they were all without locks and she did not want to draw any attention to herself with smashing something. She also notice there were cameras dotted about and she did not know how to escape them, which was why she opened the door of a room and snuck in.

Looking around, she deducted she was in someone's bedroom, and it was a used one at that. The large king sized bed was neatly kept, the red duvet folded and without creases, as were the pillows and the sheets. There were a few shelves filled with books and when she glanced at them, she saw they were of various subjects from art to science to business.

Jogging over to the wardrobe, she thought that perhaps if she found some servants clothes she could pass as one of them, they all seemed to be wearing the same uniform. She hoped that the man she had knocked out would not awaken and be found out.

Wrenching open the doors of the wardrobe she began rummaging around. The inside was as neat as the bedroom. The different types of clothes were ordered and hung up neatly, ironed and colour coordinated. She had been looking for a few seconds when she noticed something.

Stunned, she pulled out each outfit one by one and gawped. The clothes looked a lot like Azula's.

Closing the wardrobe, slightly unnerved, she rushed to the desk and opened a few drawers. It was when she spotted a large shield placed on a shelf she seriously began questioning where she was. The shield seemed a lot like what Azula had once described when her Uncle had given it to her. Looking at the computer, she switched it on and took a step back when she saw whose name popped up.

She was in Azula's room.

Had Azula kidnapped her?

"Don't be ridiculous Katara." She muttered to herself. Azula had been there in the house when she had been stolen away, why would she kidnap her in the first place? They were friends.

Stepping out of the room she closed the door quietly behind her and ran to look for a phone. There had not been one in her room and she did not know the password for her computer.

She was in Azula's house.

Running down a grand flight of stairs, glancing left and right she made sure no one was about. When a door on the ground floor opened however, she dived over the banister and pressed herself against the wall. It seemed to be a man who entered the corridor, a tall man who wore a black suit and who looked a lot like an older version of Zuko.

Katara bit back a gasp, it was his father. She was in the house of Ozai.

A servant walked by.

"How is our guest doing?" he asked her.

Katara shuddered at his voice, it was cold and deep.

"She is doing well sir." The servant answered, she sounded scared.

"Good, I don't want any trouble. You've been warned."

"Yes sir." The woman bowed and scurried away with her pile of towels.

"In fact..." he began and the woman turned back. "Bring her to me. The meeting in the main room is over, I will meet her there."

"Yes sir." The woman bowed once more and scampered up the stairs.

Oh no, Katara thought, what was she going to do now? She wasn't there.

Ozai had kidnapped her, what for? She had nothing to do with him. Perhaps he had found out about Azula and Zuko's lies. Maybe that was it.

Once he left, Katara ran across the hallway silently and entered the room he had exited and embarked on the search for a phone.

She seemed to have entered a large office. There was a long, black table in the centre surrounded by chairs, illuminated by the fire in the large hearth at the end of the room. It was dark and eerie. Katara swiftly looked around and was unsuccessful. Where was she to find a phone?

With a house this big, she thought, perhaps the kitchen would have one, especially if there were a lot of servants.

With a new target, she opened the nearest door and stepped through, finding she was suddenly in the kitchen and it was not empty.

"Shit, shit, shit..." what was she going to do now? Luckily they had not seen her once she ducked down and hid behind the cupboards.

There were two women and a small, dumpy-looking man working away.

Everyone had a phone these days, would it be so bad if she knocked them out and took one from them.

Cringing, Katara glanced at the back door which led outside, to freedom, and at the three people.

Either she escaped with no means of communication or she knocked three innocent people out and escaped with communication. But who was to say they were innocent?

Katara waited for a few seconds while she debated and cringed. She was going to have to knock them out.

"Sorry..." she began and tip toeing forward with her back bent, she grabbed a pan that was placed on the counter and snuck behind a worker and smashed it across their head.

Before the other two could react, she advanced upon them without hesitation.

BAM! BAM!

There were suddenly three unconscious bodies around her.

"Sorry..." she mumbled again and grabbing stool, she placed two under the handles of the doors, searched the pockets of the unconscious bodies and found a phone.

"Yes!" she gasped out in jubilation and she began dialling in her father's number whilst walking out of the door and outside. She was halfway there, she was almost free. The air had never felt so great.

The phone began ringing and it was picked up swiftly.

"Hello?"

"Dad," she began, tears welling up, it was her father's voice. "It's me, Katara."

"What's going on?" Sokka questioned his father when entering the room in the police station. They had returned from their search for the van when he had called, saying they had found Katara. Aang, Azula and Zuko had already returned.

"Katara called." Hakoda explained. He was standing next to an inspector who was sitting next to another. The others were sat together on the chairs or floor, waiting.

"What?" Sokka asked him, confused. "Is she okay?"

Hakoda eyed him seriously. "She's at the kidnapper's house and she's trying to escape."

"What? That's great! Are you gonna go get her?" he turned to the inspector.

"It's not as simple as that young man." The inspector said.

"Do you know which house she's in at least?"

Hakoda nodded. "She said she's at the House of Ozai."

Sokka's jaw dropped. "What..." he glanced at Azula and Zuko who were avoiding his gaze, they were staring at the floor confused and almost ashamed. Sokka shook his head to clear away the puzzlement. "What? What does Ozai want with Katara?"

"We just found out." Hakoda said to him. "You better sit down with the others."

He then explained how he had received a letter a few days ago from an anonymous buyer that wanted his company and had threatened him.

"What makes you think that's father? It may not be for the same reason." Azula questioned him.

"When I returned home, I saw I had received another letter saying if I wanted Katara back, I'd have to sell my company to _him_."

Zuko cursed. "Looks like his plan backfired completely." He muttered.

"We want him be caught in the act," the inspector explained. "So we told Katara to stay there just in case he tries to pull anything when we get there by denying it. Zuko, Azula, we have some more questions for you if you don't mind."

The both of them got up silently and exited the room with the inspector.

"She's not hurt is she?" Sokka asked his father.

"No, she says she's fine."

He breathed out. "Good."

"Some shock, huh..." Toph stated and they agreed silently.

"How did the breaking into the secret assassin cove go?" Mai asked Aang.

"It failed." He responded. "For the better I think. We know where she is now."

Azula and Zuko returned after half an hour and they then asked for Aang.

"Why?" he questioned them. "I don't know anything about Ozai."

"It's not about him." The inspector said. "It's about this assassin group you know about."

Aang froze and gripped the seat he was sitting on.

"Aang," Hakoda held a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be alright, you're not guilty about anything, they just want to know."

Aang nodded.

"Aang look at me," Hakoda said gently and Aang looked at him. "Just tell them what you told us. Relax."

"Right." He smiled meekly.

"Don't worry," the inspector said to all of them. "None of you are suspects. We just need some answers."

Aang nodded and walked out of the room with him whilst the other police officers prepared to get Katara out.

Katara hid underneath a bridge in the garden, clutching the phone tightly. They had told her to stay and she did not know whether Ozai had found out she was missing yet. How could they have not though? She had knocked someone out. For some reason she expected alarms to sound from the house and see rushing people, masked soldiers to sprint out of the building with guns to look for her but there was nothing. It was peaceful. The garden was quiet. Only the birds accompanied her but she wanted nothing other than for them to shut up and be quiet. They were keeping her on edge and they were making her nervous.

Glancing at the phone, she saw there was text and when opening it, she almost cried. It was from her father.

 _Be strong baby, we're coming to get you. Dad._

He was coming. Thank the spirits. All she had to do was wait. They would come and all would be better.

Why had Ozai kidnapped her in the first place? She had never even seen him properly until an hour ago. They had never even spoken to each other. What had been his purpose?

Katara glanced around, there was no one about. The grounds were so big she was surprised there were no guards around.

"Come on dad," she muttered. "Hurry up."

The servant did not know what to do.

He stood in the doorway of the basement, gazing at another servant's dead...no... unconscious...body. Surely the girl had not killed him. Rushing forward, he checked the other servant's pulse and found he was alive, although that fact did not pacify him. He was going to have to tell his master. He was going to have to tell Ozai.

He was going to kill him.

Scampering out of the room, he felt himself tremble in fear. What was he going to do? What was he going to tell him? Don't lie, don't make it worse for yourself. Ozai always seemed to know when someone was lying, like he could read their minds. He wondered how his children coped with him. He wasn't exactly the nicest of fathers from what he observed.

"Well, where is she?"

When finally standing before him, the servant found he had lost his voice.

"I...er...I...sh..."

Ozai sensed something was wrong and stood up. "What has happened? Where is she?"

The servant shuddered. He couldn't even move anymore.

"SIR!"

Someone knocked on the door frantically.

"Come in!" Ozai yelled out, ignoring the whimpering servant before him.

Another worker stepped into the room, without leaving the doorway. "Sorry to disturb you sir but I walked into the kitchen and I found three of the kitchen workers knocked out sir." He garbled. "I don't know what happened."

Ozai stared at the speaker for a second with the most murderous glare, he flinched and took a step back, out of the room.

"Get to the basement!" Ozai barked out. "Make it so that no one had ever been here! The girl never existed!"

Both the servants nodded and hurried away, just hearing Ozai yell the last order.

"AND FIND HER OR I'LL HAVE YOUR HEADS!"

Hakoda was sat in the back of a police car, it was night and they were driving to the house of Ozai. The police had told Katara to stay in a significant place where they could find her. She had told them she would be in the garden underneath a bridge by a pond and as they drove, Hakoda rubbed his face and sipped at the coffee he had been given. It was night, he had eaten nothing all day and he found it hard to stomach even the bitter taste of the coffee he was sipping at. He needed Katara safe. He needed his daughter safe.

The others had returned to his house and in the midst of it all, Iroh had arrived, much to Azula and Zuko's glee. They had needed a family member to assure them, a _good_ family member to remind them their family was not evil. They were all waiting impatiently for Katara to return, for the plan to run as smoothly and as quickly as possible.

The car stopped in front of the tall, grand gates of the manor and the two vans that had driven with them exploded. Out rushed armed police officers with guns towards the gates and swiftly, they were exploded open. Hakoda jumped at the shock and at how aggressive and violent this was becoming. He really did not want everything to get out of hand. It seemed that it could go wrong so easily.

Hakoda stepped out of the car when told by the inspector and together, they walked into the grounds behind the team of armed police who were securing the ground from all sides of the manor. The inspector held a radio in his hand and wore an earpiece in his ear to keep in contact with all teams. He even wore a bullet proof vest, as did Hakoda.

"All ground covered?" he questioned and there were numerous answers of check's. Together the two of them jogged to the house, protected by guns and Hakoda for the first time saw how truly large the house of Ozai was, and how grand it was.

They arrived at the front door and it was ordered to be smashed down.

It was followed by the swarming of officers to rush into the house, yelling and shouting, hollering out orders and some had tear-gas at the ready. There were yells of find Ozai, find the home owner, find the man and find the girl, has the girl been located, has she been located yet?

Hakoda calmed himself and waited, his eyes open, heart pounding at all that was going on. It was complete chaos.

And then there was Ozai's face, his cool and relaxed face that denied what was going on, that was completely oblivious to the reason of why his house was being ambushed and destroyed and there were yells of where the girl was, where was she, where was she and he answered, there is no girl, there is no girl in my house, I have kidnapped no one, I had abducted nobody, where was the girl, where was she and then there she was, she was there, Katara, Katara was there and she ran at the sight of her father and she was in his arms.

She had been found.

She was safe.

"Dad, you made it..." she cried.

"I made it...I'm sorry I took so long..."

The case to lock Ozai behind bars had taken six whole months.

It would have taken a much shorter time but Ozai had money and no matter how much evidence was stacked against him, he paid the best lawyers to defend him, bribed the judges, the jury, everyone and went to extremes to keep his name innocent. Through that time, everyone seethed in anger, frustrated he was always so close to being let off the hook.

He had of course rid of any evidence that showed Katara had ever been in the house. He convinced all of the servants not to say anything, they acted as if they had never even seen her before and that she had never been in the house and no, she was not locked in the basement. The plan had been great until one servant cracked under interrogation and told the inspectors of how he had been threatened by Ozai. The servant then required protection from the police force. All evidence that Ozai had had recorded by the cameras had been deleted and never found but they found evidence of how there were large gaps in time that Ozai had not been able to cover. Through the court case, it had been revealed of how Ozai was also threatening other members of the business world and slowly but surely, he was being uncovered for the true monster he was.

There had been numerous times the evidence was lost or witnesses simply disappeared but that had made the jury more suspicious towards him and then there was the problem with the assassin coven. Had he contacted them?

Of course the assassin coven had never been found and Zuko, Azula and Aang had never revealed their base, mostly out of fear they would cause more trouble than anything else. By the end of the six months, Ozai had been close to being let free until one big, unexpected move caused him to be thrown behind bars for decades to come.

Zuko and Azula, having been afraid to stand before their father, had never returned to the house and had been staying with Hakoda, as had Iroh. They of course had been afraid and on more than one occasion had been called to the stands to prosecute against him, and they had, knowing it was justifiable. Though the decision to go against him had been decided after night after night of arguing and persuasion by everyone. By the end they had gone against their own father and had avoided his eye contact through the whole ordeal.

But one night, Ozai had somehow escaped the eye of the police and had somehow entered Hakoda's house and there, he had attacked his own children.

Ozai had felt his own flesh and blood had betrayed him, had stabbed him in the back, had rejected and shamed their own father and he showed them how he felt, brutally. It had been a night of shock and horror and Azula and Zuko ended up in hospital.

And Zuko obtained the mother of all scars.

Of course after that, Ozai was practically thrown into jail with a sentence that was so long that people, by the end, would forget his name had even existed.

It had not been an easy few months.

"Zuko..."

Someone knocked on the door and Zuko sat up in the hospital bed. It was afternoon but the outside seemed like it was night; it was dark with clouds and raining heavily.

"Who is it?" he called quietly, his voice was strained.

The door opened and Iroh's face popped into the gap of the door and Zuko broke into a smile.

"Uncle Iroh. May I come in?"

Zuko nodded and he entered, with a bag of grapes, a bunch of flowers and a basket of gifts and cards it seemed.

"Gifts from your friends." He told his nephew and Zuko raised his eyebrows at the flowers.

"All gifts have come from the goodness of people's hearts, you should accept them, they care for you." Iroh told him and Zuko nodded. Iroh placed them on the table at the other side of the room and then sat on the chair by Zuko's bed.

"How's...Azula?" Zuko asked him.

"She is well. She is actually asleep at the moment." Iroh looked at Zuko and suppressed a sigh, he looked worse than Azula. His face, neck and arms, the only skin visible was filled with cuts and bruises and the worst was his bandaged eye. It was a burn, Ozai had been truly crazed with anger. It was lucky Zuko had not lost the eye. "How is the left side of your face?"

He shrugged. "Stings a little," he muttered. "Doctors put something on it."

"Of course." Iroh nodded. "Is there anything you need, you want me to do?"

Zuko shook his head and stared straight ahead, at the wall. They sat for a long few minutes, in silence and Iroh waited, there was clearly something on his mind.

"Did I do the right thing Uncle? Did _we_ do the right thing?"

Iroh straightened. "It depends on what you did Zuko."

"I mean...going against... _father_...at the court house, going against him like that. I mean...it was...wrong..."

"You think it was wrong for Ozai to be put into jail for kidnapping Katara, threatening people with death and ordering kills?"

"No." He immediately protested. "I mean, the way we did it. _We._ We're his...children...we shouldn't have said anything. He's still my father and I did that to him. He had never hurt me before..." he cut short and turned his face away from Iroh. "He had been a father. He hadn't been like Hakoda but he was my father. He took care of me and looked after me and gave everything and I threw it away like that..."

Iroh nodded, he understood of course, and Azula had said the same thing. "He is your father Zuko, you can never change that. He many not have been a caring father like Hakoda but...he is your father and he did want the best for you. He wanted you to be the best. That I know."

Zuko nodded.

"But Zuko...he was a bad man. He may not have shown that side to you but to others...he was malicious. What you did was right for others. You did not do wrong. You did it for those innocents that have suffered by him and surely Zuko...the way he reacted shows how bad he is."

Zuko nodded and rubbed at his good eye. "Did you...?" he began, swallowing back the lump in his throat. "Did you know he was like that?" Zuko asked him.

"That my brother was a bad person?" Iroh thought for a while. "I had always seen more bad than good in him, especially after your mother's death," he sighed, "but I never knew, I never even suspected he had been as bad as he was. That he had fallen into that pit."

"Oh," was all Zuko responded with.

"Do not drown yourself with guilt at what you did Zuko." Iroh said to him.

He nodded. "I mean, it's not like it's going to change anything."

"No, it will not."

Zuko sighed and tugged at his bandage. "Thank you, uncle."

"You are welcome Zuko."

\- FINIS -


End file.
